American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance

Nearly a quarter of Americans age 85 and older now live in a multi-generational household and could benefit from smarter planning suggests the director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI), a national trade organization.

“The number of older Americans living together with younger family members continues to climb,” declared Jesse Slome, AALTCI’s director.   Slome points to recent data that reported the in 2006 only 20 percent of those 85 and older lived in a multi-generational setting.

“Several factors account for the growing trend including inadequate retirement savings and the need and cost for long-term care services,” Slome notes.  A Pew research study found that as many as 40 percent of nonwhite and 42 percent of Asian-Americans lived in shared households.

“I would expect the trend to continue with more Americans living with and caring for their aging parents,” Slome predicted.  “For many of these individuals and families, a different means of approaching long-term care planning could be extremely beneficial.”

Slome suggested millions of Americans would benefit from a form of long-term care planning that included smaller and shorter long-term care insurance policies and where they are available short-term care insurance policies.  The latter offer benefits because some policies can be obtained at older ages, well into the applicant’s 80s.

“A long-term care insurance policy that provides more modest benefits will cost around $100 a month which is the maximum many people can or will spend,” Slome pointed out.  “But it could enable some level of professional care in the home that allows the adult child to maintain their job or just some have some respite from the job of care giving.”

Short-term care insurance policies are available in a growing number of states a trend Slome believes is beneficial for millions of families as well as taxpayers.  “If we want to avoid a significant increase in the number of individuals turning to government programs funded by taxpayers, we need to find affordable solutions, and short-term care insurance is an option we hope more states accept,” he added.

“Throwing the burden onto families and communities and kicking the can down the road are not viable solutions,” Slome explained.   The national long-term care insurance planning advocate noted that it was the responsibility of those with a stake in the game to take action.   He noted that long-term care insurance, which provides protection to roughly eight million Americans was a small but important piece of the puzzle.

To learn more about long-term care insurance planning options call the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance at 818-597-3227 or visit the organization’s website at www.aaltci.org to find LTC insurance professionals.   To learn more about short-term care insurance visit the National Advisory Center for Short-Term Care Information.

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