Only about 10% of adults have long term care insurance. Given that Medicare does not cover long term care, how smart is that?
Long term care can be expensive. Long term care insurance is expensive. Pierce County Aging & Disability Resources will offer an impartial look at the pros and cons to long term care insurance, reasons to buy and reasons not to buy. This is an information-only event. Participants will get straight-forward information about the benefits and disadvantages to a plan.
“Long Term Care Insurance: Smart or Foolish?” will be presented twice:
•Monday, April 14; 7 to 8 p.m.
Soundview Building
3602 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma
•Wednesday, April 16; 7 to 8 p.m.
Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community
1301 N Highlands Parkway, Tacoma
“Our culture often denies aging,” said Aaron Van Valkenburg, Pierce County Aging and Disability Resources manager. “It’s easy to not even think about long term care insurance. It can be very expensive and most of us never think we will need care for an extended period of time. But before turning our back on such a policy, it’s important to know what it is we are rejecting.”
The workshop will cover a number of important topics: long term care services and the need for care, the upside and downside to long term care insurance, what insurance really does, who should buy it and who should not buy it, the consequences of doing nothing and alternatives to long term care insurance.
“Long Term Care Insurance: Smart or Foolish?” is an information-only workshop. There will be no selling of products. The workshop is sponsored by the Pierce County Aging & Disability Resource Center. It is free and open to the public. RSVPs are requested in advance by calling (253) 798-8787.
For more information about the workshop itself, call the Pierce County Aging and Disability Resource Center at (253) 798-4600.
Pierce Prairie Post 
The only downside I see with long term care insurance is when you never get to use it, a lot of people ignore getting long term care insurance due to its high cost, not realizing that the cost of long term care services are even higher. It would seem feasible to set a portion of income to pay for monthly premium than paying a large amount of money for the cost of care. An ltci policy with $2,000 annual premium is easier to pay than paying a lump sum of $80,000 annually for a stay in a long term care facility. But the product has evolved since, I have written several articles about long term care insurance at infolongtermcare.org providing information on other ways to pay for long term care, one of which is using life insurance, so regardless if you need ltc services or not, you will still get to claim your benefits. I wonder how people are willing to pay for a meal at a fine dining restaurant or spend money for vacation, watching movies, buying gadgets, etc., but do not want to spend a dime for long term care insurance when it is actually their well being that is taken cared of.
Long term care insurance is indeed expensive. It is a fact that even companies that offer long term care insurance information like http://www.acsia.com/resources.php is not trying to hide. It is out in the open for everyone to see. Mistake it not, the flashy promotion of the LTCI’s price is not to brag the wealth of the people who can afford it but rather to provide people with reasonable overview, and thus prepare for this.