Insurance World

One of the most important things in our lives is finding an affordable health insurance, and it’s better to get it as soon as possible. Illness is never welcome, bad but without an insurance plan it may become disastrous. Imagine how fast the bills will pile up if you get sick, and if you do not have a good coverage, how are you going to pay them? And if you think a bit further, apart from being bankrupt, in the worst scenario the lack of a decent health insurance can even lead to a lethal end. You know how expensive all the treatments are, especially for the more serious diseases, and if you don’t get those on time because you can not afford them the situation becomes very bad. In the end once it is too late, it really is and no one can change that.

I am going to tell you this story, because I want to help as many people as possible not to make the mistake my cousin made. She actually never considered even looking for an affordable health insurance, thinking that she is still healthy enough and too young to go for that option. But out of nowhere her condition changed rapidly, and after ignoring it for some time she finally took notice of it. Unfortunately it proved to be cancer, and she couldn’t afford the expensive treatments. The whole family tried helping her, they were organizing fund raisings for her, helped her with money of their own, etc. while the only thing she needed was an affordable health care plan. She didn’t get it on time and despite her being so positive about starting one now, it was already late. Being sick she had the so called prior condition, meaning that no company will cover treatment for a disease she already had.

What more convincing and important reason do you need in order to get an affordable health insurance. You just have to start searching and not to give up until you find the right one for you, speaking of affordable ones, the best choice usually is to get one that’s through your employer. It’s very simple – big employers get big quantities, and for quantities they get discounts, so they can provide you with a much cheaper health care plan than the ones you could get yourself. It’s different when you are self-employed. Then it is harder to get an affordable one and you usually end up paying quite a lot for the same type of coverage.

However there are ways to get over this obstacle also. You can for example run a group health insurance with other self-employed people, then it will be pretty much as cheap as if you were getting it from an employer. No matter how difficult it may be, just make sure to get one, one way or another you must have an affordable health insurance, so that even if it makes your life a bit harder, you will be pretty sure that you have that same life protected and your expenses covered in case something happens.

Copyright (c) 2006 Clay Cotton

Clearly, you don’t want to dwell on an image of you or your spouse in a wheel chair or nursing home, but if you don’t plan ahead now for such eventualities, you could end up with a crippling financial burden that can strip a family of it’s entire nest egg.

Funding for eventual long term care must be planned for far in advance, and long term care insurance seems to be the tool of choice. The alternatives really suck by comparison, so it’s time to get going to put your plan in place while you still can.

Fact is, there is nearly a 50% chance that during retirement, due to medical conditions or extended longevity, a person will eventually end up requiring 24-hour skilled nursing care in a long term care facility.

Another astounding fact is that more than 40% of nursing home residents are under age 65. In truth, at age 57, due to advanced Multiple Sclerosis, I myself would be in a care home if my wife would let me out of her sight.

And now let’s look at the average length of facility care plus the projected costs for that care…

Long Term Care - It’s Leading Causes & Average Lengths of Nursing Home Stays ( from Financial Planning News ):

Alzheimer’s: 96 months
Diabetes: 48 months
Pulmonary: 36 months
Cancer: 36 months
Stroke: 21 months
Cardiac:16 months

What happens if you don’t have long term care insurance, but you do need this long term care?

Well, at room rates of $300.00 per day, if care costs inflate at least 5% annually, then 10 years from now, the average, Alzheimer’s, long term care stay in a private room could cost a family over $1,400,000.00+

Do you want your family to pay THAT out of savings? I don’t think so, and long term care insurance is clearly the only sensible answer, but is long term care insurance too expensive?

Long term care insurance can cost from under $100/mo. to over $1000/month, so sure, at first insurance can seem expensive, yet consider this:

At 5% annual compounded inflation, in 10 years, actual real-life care costs could mount to well over anything you might ever put into long term care insurance. Just do the math.

The annual long term care insurance premium investment is often less than the actual cost of just ONE MONTH in a care situation.

NOTE: Recent industry articles indicate that long term care insurance is such a valuable planning tool that financial advisors may face legal action if they neglect to at least recommend consideration of coverage. (Trusts & Estates Magazine)

Long term care insurance may make good financial sense for you and yours, and the early bird gets the worm, because the lowest long term care insurance prices are locked in at the younger ages and are designed to remain level thereafter.

In any case, each policy is designed to custom fit your circumstances, so you have to work with a trained long term care insurance specialist in order to create the optimal coverage plan. You’ll want a multi-company broker who can compare companies and policies to find the best long term care insurance plan for your unique situation.