New research has shown that the coverage and other preparations for LTC is not a top concern.
According to the results of a new poll, which looked into the way that people aged 40 and higher are making preparations for their future aging needs, the trend is that few are making a high priority of taking out long term care insurance and making other preparations to pay for the costly assistance that they may one day need.
Two thirds of the participants in the study said that they had planned very little or not at all.
The results of the long term care insurance and planning study showed that three out of ten respondents would actually prefer not to think about aging at all. Only one in every four feel that they will, at some point in their lives, require personal assistance in being able to provide themselves with their everyday needs such as bathing and grooming, or being able to get around.
The research helps to explain why long term care insurance coverage is purchased by a small percentage.
The study was conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The findings are surprising, when compared to another result of the study, which determined that over half of the participants have already been caregivers to other people who needed assistance after being impaired in some way. Therefore, even though they have seen the type of assistance that a person can need, first hand, they still choose not to buy long term care insurance or otherwise prepare in case they, themselves, should ever need it.
The poll also found that instead of buying long term care insurance, the majority of the participants expect that their family members will step up and help to take care of them. This was the case, despite the fact that sixty percent had not discussed this possibility with their loved ones and how they would want it to work.
According to an AARP Public Policy Institute nurse and director, Susan Reinhard, “The expectation that your family is going to be there when you need them often doesn’t mean they understand the full extent of what the job of caregiving will be.”
It may be wise for a much larger number of people to consider long term care insurance or, at a minimum, to sit down with the people that will be expected to provide this assistance, and work out the details.
