As the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age millions of people are asking questions about elder law issues. One of these is the matter of long-term care and how you are supposed to go about handling these expenses.
Once you attain senior citizen status your life expectancy is going to exceed 80 years. People who reach an advanced age often require living assistance, and this can involve full-time residence in a nursing home or assisted living community.
When you are planning for retirement the goal is to accumulate the resources that you need to pay your way for the rest of your life without working. By the time you are perhaps in your 80’s and in need of living assistance you may well have exhausted most of your funds.
This is not the best time to be faced with some enormous bills. In 2011, the average cost for a single day in a private room in a nursing home in the United States was $239. When you start multiplying that figure by months and years the expense could be considerable.
And of course this $239 figure is likely to be much higher if you need long-term care 30 years from now since the average cost of a stay in a long-term care facility has been rising by about 5% per year.
While Medicare will not pay for long-term care Medicaid will but it takes some intelligent planning to gain eligibility while retaining assets and long-term care insurance can be purchased though it is very expensive if you wait until you are senior citizen before taking out coverage.
Long-term care costs are something that you should definitely discuss with a good elder law attorney so that you are not taken by surprise as a vulnerable senior citizen.
Paul A. Kraft, Estate Planning Attorney
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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