lyndsey369
Junior Member
Washington
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Can I purchase long term care insurance for a parent who can't afford to do so?
- Thread starter lyndsey369
- Start date
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OHRoadwarrior
Senior Member
Sure you can. How it might effect any financial programs they are on, is another story.
commentator
Senior Member
The last thing I read about long term health care insurance, which was an article in Money Magazine recently, said that the policies are becoming more and more expensive, and that though they are changing, the costs of them are very prohibitive. Very few financial advisors are suggesting these products for their clients these days.
And like most types of insurance, if you can't afford to pay the premiums, you probably don't need the insurance. If your parents do not have enough assets that they could pay those extremely high premiums without a struggle, then you have to assume that they don't have enough assets to keep them from being eligibile for Medicaid if it came to that, or enough of a huge estate that you would want desperately to protect it.
I assume that you understand, don't you, that only their assets would be considered in finding the funding to care for them? That even if they require long term nursing home care, which is a big if anyway, you and other family members won't be asked to pony up for their care costs. Medicare, which they are receiving anyway, will usually cover about three months of rehab care if they have to be in the hospital and then are released to a nursing home. Sounds terrible to suggest, but most elderly people who are this ill either get a lot better and go home within this time frame, or they don't make it through. People who stay and stay and stay for years in a health care facility are not so common anymore in this health care market.
And the great majority of these people are covered by Medicaid once they have exhausted their own personal assets. It is only fitting and proper that a person use his own assets to cover the cost of his health care. But a long term illness requiring this type of care is going to exhaust even the most diligent of savers, and the party will eventually end up on Medicaid.
If only one parent is in a care facility, Medicaid allows the other person to continue to live in the home and have a "life estate" in the family home. They don't demand that you sell it. And they do not consider the assets of the other family members or children of the elderly person, unless there has been a big sudden effort to divest away assets by the elderly person within the last five years. If this is the case, then the recipients of these assets could be required to pay for their care.
But this is an "iffy" situation. Your elderly parents may never need long term care, and they may never need the care that was to be paid for by those extremely high cost premiums you would be paying. That's what the companies are counting on. You'd be better served saving your money and taking care of them, doing a little more research on what the "what ifs" of this situation are.
And like most types of insurance, if you can't afford to pay the premiums, you probably don't need the insurance. If your parents do not have enough assets that they could pay those extremely high premiums without a struggle, then you have to assume that they don't have enough assets to keep them from being eligibile for Medicaid if it came to that, or enough of a huge estate that you would want desperately to protect it.
I assume that you understand, don't you, that only their assets would be considered in finding the funding to care for them? That even if they require long term nursing home care, which is a big if anyway, you and other family members won't be asked to pony up for their care costs. Medicare, which they are receiving anyway, will usually cover about three months of rehab care if they have to be in the hospital and then are released to a nursing home. Sounds terrible to suggest, but most elderly people who are this ill either get a lot better and go home within this time frame, or they don't make it through. People who stay and stay and stay for years in a health care facility are not so common anymore in this health care market.
And the great majority of these people are covered by Medicaid once they have exhausted their own personal assets. It is only fitting and proper that a person use his own assets to cover the cost of his health care. But a long term illness requiring this type of care is going to exhaust even the most diligent of savers, and the party will eventually end up on Medicaid.
If only one parent is in a care facility, Medicaid allows the other person to continue to live in the home and have a "life estate" in the family home. They don't demand that you sell it. And they do not consider the assets of the other family members or children of the elderly person, unless there has been a big sudden effort to divest away assets by the elderly person within the last five years. If this is the case, then the recipients of these assets could be required to pay for their care.
But this is an "iffy" situation. Your elderly parents may never need long term care, and they may never need the care that was to be paid for by those extremely high cost premiums you would be paying. That's what the companies are counting on. You'd be better served saving your money and taking care of them, doing a little more research on what the "what ifs" of this situation are.
tranquility
Senior Member
There is a BIG difference between what one gets as long-term care through medicaid and what one gets through a high-quality long-term-care insurance.
Big difference.
Big difference.
TheGeekess
Keeper of the Kraken
All of you realize that the original post is from 2009. Spammer brought it to the top this AM. 
commentator
Senior Member
Perhaps the spammer resurrected this in a genuine effort to find out something. Anyway, I still stand by what I say. Tranq, in the facilities that were available in the areas I am familiar with, I'd say 90% of the patients were eventually on Medicaid as opposed to private pay. And if you are on one or the other, there was very little, if any difference in the quality of care given. Once you run out of assets, you aren't put on an Army cot and fed gruel or something like that. Getting a placement in any skilled nursing facility is a real accomplishment around here. You pretty much get placed at the first place that has an opening, regardless of who pays. The private pay only ones are very high end that's true, but ultimately, most people don't stay in them long enough that they would've depleted their assets completely unless they had a LOT of assets, which this person's parents apparently did not have.
I wonder, three or four years later, how this played out, if it turned out that the OP's parents have needed long term care.
One problem with the earlier long term care insurance policies were that they actually didn't pay for assisted living facilities, not even the really ritzy high end assisted living--then on to higher and higher levels of care facilities that are being built today. Just the high skilled level nursing homes where most of the patients are on Medicaid eventually anyway. I've seen people who had to private pay for assisted living and memory care type care units, even though they had long term care insurance, because it was so specifically directed toward 'skilled nursing facility' care.
I wonder, three or four years later, how this played out, if it turned out that the OP's parents have needed long term care.
One problem with the earlier long term care insurance policies were that they actually didn't pay for assisted living facilities, not even the really ritzy high end assisted living--then on to higher and higher levels of care facilities that are being built today. Just the high skilled level nursing homes where most of the patients are on Medicaid eventually anyway. I've seen people who had to private pay for assisted living and memory care type care units, even though they had long term care insurance, because it was so specifically directed toward 'skilled nursing facility' care.