Long Term Care Insurance Is Option To Avoid Mandated Family Caregiving

Oct. 10, 2012 - PRLog -- Family caregivers provide the overwhelming percentage of personal care much of which is classified as long-term care according to the director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, the industry trade group.

“Some 42 million caregivers provide unpaid care to family and friends at any given time," says Jesse Slome, AALTCI's executive director.   "These are dedicated and loving adult children with aging parents and good neighbors who provide an estimated $450 billion in unpaid care but their generosity comes with a cost, often a very high cost in terms of disrupted lives."

Studies have shown that although family caregivers providing long term care services usually undertake these required care services willingly, they often experience high levels of emotional, physical and financial stress.  "Many are adult women who now have to juggle jobs and caring for their own families with their caregiving responsibilities," Slome notes.  "Many parents are turning their children into indentured servants, something they never intended."

Speaking to insurance professionals in advance of November's Long Term Care awareness Month, Slome urged discussions with focused on planning to avoid giving adult children with aging parents no other choice but to disrupt their lives to provide unpaid care.

"Long term care insurance http://www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance today is a viable and can be an affordable option to prevent having to make your children care for you," Slome stated.  "But, the option is only available to those who apply at an age when they can still health qualify and far to many people who call our offices have acquired age-related health conditions that prevent them from meeting the acceptable requirements."

The ideal ages to start a long term care plan is between ones mid-50s and mid-60s according to the AALTCI director.  "We strong urge people to start planning prior to retirement and qualifying for Medicare," Slome told the group.  "Medicare comes with wonderful free health screens that many take advantage of, but those screens uncover conditions that impact a person's ability to health qualify for coverage."

Established in 1998 as a non-profit trade group, the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance advocates for the importance of planning for long term care and supports insurance and financial professionals who market LTC insurance.  To obtain free, no-obligation long term care insurance costs call the organization’s offices at (818) 597-3227 or visit the Association’s website.   Long Term Care Awareness Month http://www.aaltci.org/ltc-marketing/awareness_month/ (November) was established in 2001 by the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance as a national event to call attention to the importance of planning.