In March 2003, the U. S. Office of Personnel Management launched its early enrollment opportunity to make Long-Term Care insurance available to its more than 20 million employees. There was a multi-million dollar educational and marketing campaign that was paid for with your tax dollars to encourage federal employees to enroll for this important employee benefit, which was made available to all federal government employees, retirees, their spouses, adult children and stepchildren, parents, parents in law, stepparents, retirees and deferred annuitants. Metropolitan Life and John Hancock, two giants in the insurance world, then formed Long-Term Care Partners LLC, a jointly owned entity devoted exclusively to operating the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program.

You may be thinking, ‘what does this have to do with me? Why should I care about benefits that Federal employees will be receiving?’ The message is clear: Our Federal Government believes in and is endorsing Long-Term Care insurance. The national average cost of Long-Term Care today is $35,000 per year for home healthcare, and that’s when there is a very strong family support system to help with care giving. The care in a facility today exceeds $75,000. By the year 2030, the national average cost of care will be $82,000 for home health care and more than $200,000 per year for care in a facility.

It’s time each of us addresses our financial responsibilities and take a hard look at the high probability of needing Long-Term health care and deal with it.

Seven out of every ten Americans over the age of 65 will need Long-Term health care at some point in their lifetime and 43% of all Americans receiving Long-Term Care today are under the age of 65. Everyone needs to plan for their future and that of their family members. Those who are not facing the very real possibility of Long-Term health care are courting disaster with their entire family’s economic livelihood.

Talk with your peers tomorrow and ask the following questions:

• Who is or has been a caregiver for a family member or friend?
• How has it affected your family life physically, emotionally, and financially?
• How has the caregiver had to re-arrange their own life to accommodate the many affected members of their family?
  

Of course, there is no question that as a caregiver, we would do everything possible to help the situation, as any of us would, but how much easier would it be if the patient had Long-Term Care Insurance?

Long-Term Care Insurance can transfer 90% or more of the financial risk of a Long-Term health care situation to a financially sound insurance company, relieving you of the financial burden of care giving. Naturally, when relieved of the financial and the physical burden of care giving by professionally trained caregivers or nurses, it becomes so very much easier to focus on what matters most to us when faced with emotional challenges: spending quality time with our disabled loved one.

If your employer is not making Long-Term Care insurance available to employees, then you must accept personal responsibility. Long-Term Care doesn't have to be a complicated and unpleasant subject. In fact, taking responsibility for your own health and welfare can help you avoid years of poverty or substandard care. Everyone must have a Long-Term Care plan in place that will fit her lifestyle and budget.


Dorothy McMahon, president of McMahon and Associates, is a Long-Term Care Insurance Consultant in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Reach her at (248) 844-9787 or LTCINSUSA@aol.com.