Survey: Majority can't afford long-term care

With the average American living well past the age of 65, the chance of needing long-term care is about 52 percent for most people. Sadly, the cost of care is something that most people cannot afford, reports Main Street.

The average cost for long-term care is $138,000, according to Melissa Favreault of the Urban Institute and Judith Dey of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Medicare does not cover most of these costs.

According a survey of wealthy investors by financial firm UBS Wealth Management, 77 percent have not saved up for future medical expenses, and just 8 percent have received advice on managing future healthcare costs.

“Planning ahead for health expenses can help with retirement readiness and may even allow you to retire earlier,” said James Nichols, head of customer solutions group for Voya Financial. “Every financial plan should include an assessment of long-term care needs. When the time comes that you need long-term care, you want the funding to be there for you as long as care is needed.”

Approximately 3.2 million people turned 65 this year, yet only 100,000 long-term insurance policies were sold. With the small amount of insurers that offer long-term options, they are able to write the rules on rates and have been steadily increasing premiums and reducing benefits . The increase in rates is making long-term policies seem more and more impossible for many middle-class families.

“Where do we start?” is the biggest questions baby boomers are asking today. Listed are some ways to ease the burden of the cost of long-term care:

1. Where to start? By starting: Focus on savings and spending, especially by thinking about you living arrangements as the years go on, and evaluate you support system with friends and family. Don’t forget to research the cost-of-living in your area so you can tailor your needs to those of the community.
2. Hold on to home equity: A key decision is deciding where to live. With a recent AARP survey of 1,600 people 45 and older, 73 percent said they would like to stay in their current residence but keeping a home is one of the largest expenses families face as they age.  
3. Housing with community and cost-sharing built in: Robyn Stone, executive director of LeadingAge in Washington, D.C., recommends looking at co-housing, cooperative housing, home-sharing, shared residences and other communal living arrangements that reduce the overall cost of living and offer a built-in community.
4. Living with less, happily: “You can get by on a lot less when you’re retired, without really depriving yourself of anything important,” said a letter writer to The New York Times. “If I had known earlier how much ‘wealth’ derives from such simple pleasures, I would have retired much sooner.”
5. Add a thin layer of long-term care insurance: Speak to friends and family about long-term care and evaluate how much you’ll be able to rely on them. Research the kinds of services offered in your area, such as transportation and community engagements. "[T]hink about community in ways that take advantage of generations,” said Stone.