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Americans are living longer. That’s both good news — and bad.
With a life expectancy of nearly 80 years comes a high risk of illness and disability. About 80% of all elderly have at least one chronic condition. Half have two or more. Studies show that nearly two-thirds of individuals over age 65 will need some type of long-term care.
The problem is, long-term care is expensive:
- Home care services cost anywhere from $20,748 to $55,328 per year.1
- Assisted living or residential facilities cost approximately $35,616 a year.2
- Nursing home care averages $66,612 a year.
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But that’s just the beginning.
The unseen costs of care
Because of the high cost of care, many families find themselves in the position of providing the care needed by an elderly family member. That decision can place an enormous burden on the family.
Elders typically require 22 hours per week of care. But in 20% of cases, they need 40 or more hours of care a week. For working caregivers, that’s a big responsibility. According to a study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, surveyed caregivers had to make major adjustments to their work schedule:
- 16% quit their job.
- 20% cut back to part-time.
- 22% took a leave of absence.
They also sacrificed their ability to advance on the job:
- 29% passed up a promotion, training or assignment.
- 25% passed up an opportunity for job transfer or job relocation.
- 22% were unable to acquire new job skills.
Taking into account time away from work, lost wages and lost contributions, providing eldercare for a family member can cost more than $659,000 over an employee’s lifetime.3 It seems there’s no real way to avoid the high cost of long-term care.
Protect yourself with long-term care insurance
If you think Medicare or your health insurance will cover your long-term care costs, think again. Health insurance and Medicare typically don’t cover long-term care services. Without long-term care insurance, home healthcare, assisted living, adult day care and nursing home care must be funded entirely out of pocket from personal savings or by your family.
The benefits of being prepared go well beyond financial protection:
1. It can help you protect your retirement savings for its intended use: your retirement.
2. It can help you avoid burdening your children with the high cost of long-term care if you have an accident or illness.
3. It can help you preserve your independence by giving you control over the type of care you receive and where you receive it.
To learn more about the long-term care benefits available to GuideStone participants and their families, visit www.ltcguidestone.org or call LTC Financial Partners at 1-877-582-4478.
1 MetLife Mature Market Institute®, “The MetLife Market Survey on Nursing Home and Home Care Costs.” September 2006.
2 MetLife Mature Market Institute®, “The MetLife Survey of Assisted Living Costs.” October 2006.
3LTC Financial Partners.