Author Topic: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?  (Read 2994 times)

Exhale

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How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« on: August 13, 2016, 10:31:24 AM »
Thanks to JustinRoG (RootofGood) and the Mad Fientist (those guys rock), I have an understanding of some of my FIRE health insurance options. However, I'm still trying to figure out what I should do for  longterm care due to disability or illness. I'm a child free single person and want to be sure I have access to good quality longterm care should I need it. (Note: this is not at all to imply that having kids and/or a partner equals built-in longterm care!)

What are you planning on to provide for longterm care for yourself should it become necessary? Thank you in advance for any advice and information.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2016, 10:38:06 AM by Exhale »

csdreaming

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2016, 11:37:19 AM »
Posting to follow; might need it for family.

I know Obamacare has a provision for seriously sick people that is funded by a tax on medical devices. I forget what it is called.

Exhale

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2016, 12:39:23 PM »
Posting to follow; might need it for family.

I know Obamacare has a provision for seriously sick people that is funded by a tax on medical devices. I forget what it is called.

Thank you for your comment csdreaming. I'm looking into that now, but wow is it ever confusing! Makes me realize that I should budget to pay someone some kind of stipend to manage paperwork should I not be able to do it myself. Clearly it'd take at least a moderate level of coordination, research/follow-up, filling out forms, etc. (If I paid someone to do the legwork, I can then have someone who cares about me check on things, but not be burdened with all of the paperwork.)

Cassie

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2016, 01:04:07 PM »
I had disability insurance that was not very expensive when I was working. We chose not to buy LTC insurance because it is very costly but my sister may because she is single.  Spouses often do take care of one another but when one dies that safety net goes away.

wenchsenior

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2016, 04:10:08 PM »
DH and I have no kids and have been going around and around about this. He hates buying any kind of insurance, but we are likely to be right in the 'danger zone' of quite a few assets, but not really enough to self insure. I know the stats say that once you are over the 1.5 million net worth range, then you should try to self insure, but I've actually seen 3 relatives burn through nest eggs worth over 2 million in a terrifyingly short period of years, so even that doesn't feel safe to me.

I'm already potentially not insurable at a reasonable cost even though I'm only 45, and DH is older but healthy and insurable, so after several years of argument (mainly the fact that he just has never had to deal with aging relatives or friends and doesn't seem to understand the likelihood of need for care or how fucking much care costs), we finally just purchased a pretty basic policy for him, which would help me if he became incapacitated earlier. In terms of insuring me, we are still up in the air about it. If I can't get insured, we will try to allocate even more to savings to make it up for me, and cross our fingers. But it definitely worries me, that I might bankrupt him.

Also, because the LTC industry is struggling to keep up with claims, the likelihood of DH's premiums being jacked up a lot over time is very real. Ugh. The whole issue makes me depressed and tired.

Exhale

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2016, 04:44:12 PM »
Thank you for your comment Cassie. Sounds like I'm in the same boat as your sister.

I hear you wenchsenior! Like you, I had a front row seat to seeing it happen (with my grandmother who was lucky to have my parents handle things and eventually get her safely situated). It sounds like you guys have already made some progress. In the end, given the huge range of possible scenarios, one can only do so much. My goal is to do what I can and then let go of not being able to have total peace-of-mind about this. Wishing you well.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2016, 04:47:36 PM by Exhale »

Cassie

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2016, 02:45:58 PM »
I recently read that only about 20% of people end up in nursing homes. The rest manage with help from others. 

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2016, 12:39:38 PM »
I recently read that only about 20% of people end up in nursing homes. The rest manage with help from others.

Did the source say whether the percentage held for single people without children?

Cassie

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2016, 01:20:52 PM »
No it did not specify.

wenchsenior

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2016, 01:32:24 PM »
I recently read that only about 20% of people end up in nursing homes. The rest manage with help from others.

Did the source say whether the percentage held for single people without children?

Yes, this is our main issue. We are a couple but with no kids. We also don't know where we will be living in retirement, our friends are all scattered all over the country, and we don't really have many younger friends anyway. At any rate, I'd be unhappy putting those kind of expectations of help on my kids, let alone friends.

My siblings also have no kids (and neither are married though in relationships, so who knows how that will go...they will face the same problem only on much lower income). DH's siblings have a ton of kids, but he doesn't have or really want relationships with his family. And they are all struggling economically. So we are on our own planning for this.

Cassie

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2016, 01:55:58 PM »
I wouldn't expect my kids to take care of me. However, they might do what us 3 kids did to keep my Mom independent. From 78-90 she had 3 different kinds of cancer. We all took turns going to help her using our vacation/sick leave, etc and rotated.  Then the last 2 years she needed help more often but my 2 older sibs were retired and I came when I could. Having a month's help here and there kept her independent. I helped her care for my Dad but we lived in the same town at that point and my sibs didn't help. So over the long run it evened out.  If she would have needed permanent care she would have went into a home.  We had a couple that were good friends that we helped a lot for about a year to keep them together in their home. Finally after a year things deteriorated for both of them and I had to put her into a home and his son took him as he was terminal until he died. I would not do that again. We were all the same age and it was too stressful. It started slowly and snowballed.

Exhale

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Re: How best to handle long-term care due to disability/illness?
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2016, 07:14:21 PM »
Many thanks to everyone for commenting. I just heard that our city's shelter offers some options for providing life-long care for your pet(s) should you pass away. Have to look into it more once I have pets.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2016, 07:16:33 PM by Exhale »