The issue of whether to buy long-term health care is an important one for all seniors approaching their fifties and sixties. It appears to be even more serious for those selling the policies and the media who comment on them, often quite incorrectly.
Most folks who buy them fail to realize a couple of facts:
1) The insurance companies can raise the premiums for an entire group as costs rise; they’re not in the business to lose money as is Uncle Sam.
2) The benefits paid cover only a fraction of the potential costs to be covered for only a limited time.
3) The insured does not get credit for earlier premiums paid; this is like payments for fire insurance where you have had no fire and not a life insurance policy that builds up equity.
There is a way to settle the question of buying: Those who can afford to self-insure for a possibility of needing long-term care are better off without a policy. Those who cannot afford it will eventually have to opt for a form of medicaid or assistance. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.
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