Should You Buy Long-Term Care Insurance?
	Not everyone should buy a long-term care insurance policy. For some, a long-term care policy is an affordable and attractive form of insurance. For others, the cost is too great, or the benefits they can afford are insufficient. You should not buy a long-term care policy if it will cause a financial hardship and make you forego other more pressing financial needs. Each person should carefully examine his or her needs and resources to decide whether long-term care insurance is appropriate. It is also a good idea to discuss such a purchase with your family. The need for long-term care can arise gradually as a person needs more and more assistance with activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing, or the need can surface suddenly following a major illness, such as a stroke or a heart attack. Some people who have acute illnesses may need nursing home or home health care for only short periods of time. Others may need these services for many months or years. It is difficult to predict who will need long-term care, but there are studies that help shed some light on the likelihood of needing such care. For example, one national study projects that 43% of those people who turn age 65 in 1990 will enter a nursing home at some time during their life. The same study reported that among all persons who live to age 65, only 1 in 3 will spend three months or more in a nursing home; about 1 in 4 will spend one year or more in a nursing home; and only about 1 in 11 will spend five years or more in a nursing home. In other words, 2 out of 3 people who turned 65 in 1990 will either never spend any time in a nursing home or will spend less than three months in one. The risk of needing nursing home care is greater for women than men;13% of the women in this study, compared to 4% of the men, are projected to spend five or more years in a nursing home. The risk of needing nursing home care also increases with age. The chances of needing home health care are substantially greater than needing nursing home care. Once you've assessed your odds of needing coverage, you should take a hard look at the reasons you want a policy and your ability to pay for it. Whether you should buy a policy will depend on your age, health status, overall retirement objectives and income. For instance, if your only source of income is a Social Security benefit or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), you should probably not purchase long-term care insurance. Also, if you have trouble stretching your income to meet other financial obligations, such as paying for utilities, food or medicine, you should probably not purchase a long-term care insurance policy. On the other hand, people with significant assets may wish to buy a long-term care policy if they want to save these assets. Many people buy a long-term care insurance policy because they want to pay for their own care and not burden their children with nursing home bills. However, you should not buy a policy if you can't afford the premiums or cannot reasonably predict that you will be able to pay the premiums for the rest of your life. If you have existing health problems that are likely to result in the need for long-term care (for example, Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease), you will probably not be able to buy a policy. Insurance companies have medical underwriting standards in place to keep the cost of long-term care insurance affordable. In the absence of such provisions, most people would not buy coverage until they needed long term care services.
	Introduction To Long Term Care Insurance

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