In all the articles you read about Long Term Care, you seldom see any words about how this kind of coverage can provide relief for the caregiver. As a former well spouse, I see these policies in a different way.

When my wife was a few years into her illness, I purchased a policy for myself. The stress I was under made me feel I would have a stroke or heart attack. My daughter was sixteen at the time and she said she was very relieved that I had bought the policy, so that if anything happened to me, she wouldn't have to worry about how I would be taken care of. After all, she would graduate from high school soon, and would take on some debt during her college years, and would have to pay that off after graduation. With a long term care policy in place for me, and her mom on Medicaid, she would be spared the pain and anguish of crushing financial worries. I had removed a layer of anxiety from my kid. That policy is worth it to me if I know my daughter sees it as beneficial to her as well. Having learned the financial toll of illness first hand, she, too, took out a Long Term Care policy when it was offered to her as part of her group insurance.

The huge costs of caring for a catastrophically ill person often deplete hard earned savings, usually leaving the caregiver in dire straits or on welfare. That is, if the person qualifies for welfare in this new mean world of entitlements. Long term illness strikes when people are least prepared for it. Many of the well spouses I have met over the years in the Well Spouse Foundation have said the same thing. "I had no idea this would happen" "I made no preparation for this" "S/he took care of all the insurance matters. I didn’t think we would have a problem". The sick person then can’t qualify for long term care insurance, and the well person can face a long period of caregiving, and constant worries about finances. We know all too well how those mental and physical stresses can endanger our own health.

Long term care policies are getting better in their coverages, but are far from cheap. They are, however, vastly less expensive than paying for care from your resources. It makes more sense to me to pay a few thousand dollars a year, with some tax write-off of the premium now in the tax laws, than it does to run the risk of being required to pay $50-$75,000 a year if terrible illness hits. Imagine the financial and emotional impact to your family if both the parents are ill.

How many of us have fire insurance to replace our belongings, car insurance to protect our auto investment, but no coverage to protect the most valuable asset - ourselves. Please think about it. We must not ignore protecting us.