Getting Long Term Care

A Personal Take Of Long-Term Care Insurance

WSJ personal finance columnist Terri Cullen reviews the suitability of long-term care insurance to each of her family members. The conclusion, either one is not qualified, or one'd better save and invest instead of paying for insurance premiums for decades before any benefits.

Why the need for insurance? Long-term care is expensive: The average nursing-home cost for a private room is $206 a day, or $75,190 a year, according to a 2006 survey by the Metlife Mature Market Institute. On average, a home health-care aide costs $19 an hour, or $55,480 a year for eight hours of daily care. In New Jersey, where our parents live, the costs are even higher, averaging $250 to $260 a day for nursing-home care and $20 an hour for an in-home aide. (Click here and click on the "Metlife Market Survey" to see average costs in your area.)

How likely is it that our parents will need long-term care? At any given time only about 4% of people age 65 and over are in long-term-care facilities, but most people 65 and older will need some form of long-term care, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

...

Gerry and I have chosen an alternative to LTC insurance: We'll start saving specifically for the day we need care. Gerry and I have decided to each invest the $107 a month we'd spend on premiums in a taxable individual retirement account. Assuming an 8% return on our investments (the historical average), we'll save about $65,302 by the time we retire at 55. That cash, combined with Gerry's pension (assuming it's still around when we need it) and the $500,000 we've already accumulated in our tax-deferred retirement accounts, would get us just under the $2.5 million in liquid assets Mr. Cooper recommends.