Am in my late 50's. We don't have longterm disability insurance. It's a real gamble. My dad died young, was cared for at home by my mom--no real expense there. My mother just died this past November at age 85--she was at Thanksgiving dinner with us one night, and gone the next. Long term disability? Nope--she was still living independently in her own apartment. Now, note that in her 40's she had a number of health issues--anyone guessing would probably have figured that she'd either have died early, or have been disabled for a long time, and needed a lot of care in later years. Fact is, other than her regular check ups, visits to the podiatrist to care for her feet, and having her cataracts operated on, Mom hadn't had any serious medical treatment for over 20 years when she died. My father-in-law went very quickly, too--at age 82. He was still working as a plumber in November, spent a couple of months in the hospital, then died the beg. of February. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't get the insurance--only you can decide if it's right for you. But to my way of thinking, I don't see all that many people in my life who actually need longterm care. Most seem to either go quickly, or be able to manage their needs anyway. And the insurance companies are banking on the fact that their scare tactics will get lots of people to sign up--many who will never make a claim. For example, I've got an aunt who has had earthquake insurance for many years--no matter to her that we live in an area of the country that has never had a major earthquake in anyone living's memory. But they were more than happy to sell her a policy. I think she also has flood insurance--but she lives on the 6th floor of an apartment building. We also don't get floods of any size around here. That would have to be some departure from the norm for her to collect! And what about the safety of investing in an insurance company? What if the company goes out of business in years to come? Or waht if the funds are mismanaged or depleted by embezzlement. There is a huge scandal in the country right now regarding pre-paid funerals. People paid ahead to make sure their wishes would be taken care of, and many of the funeral homes have stolen those funds and families are having to come up with money to pay the cost of a funeral twice--the second time at a much higher price. Personally (and I'm not telling you what to do)--I prefer to save and control my own money. I'm not a fan of allowing others to take my funds--as in prepaid funerals, extra insurance, IRA's, etc. I do have one small SEP account, but only because I had a year where I needed some serious deductions, and that one was a reasonable way of keeping a few more of my own dollars. It's important to me to have the freedom to invest as I choose, and to move my money from here to there, depending upon what the economy is doing. I've just known too many people who have relied on others to nurture their savings, and lost everything. My sister is a case in point--worked for over 30 years for one company, was up in corporate management when the company was sold and dessimated by a larger one. She had a GOOD pension plan--but the funds were stolen by the new management, and when the company folded, she got a measely, one-time payout of $16,000!

Smart Money magazine published an article several years ago that argued against buying LTC in your 50s or earlier because the standard 5% inflation protection coverage would not keep up with the average 7% increase in nursing home costs. Basically, the earlier you buy the policy, the larger the gap that you will have between what your policy pays out and what the actual costs will be. Here are a couple of quotes from the article: "The 5% inflation adjustment is the industry standard, adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) in the early 1990s. If the insurance industry were to adopt the 7% inflation figure that some predict, 'the cost would be prohibitive', says Tom Foley, an actuary with the North Dakota Insurance Department who chairs the NAIC's long-term care rate stabilization woking group." "The average age at which people buy long-term-care insurance is now about 65, and given the effects of inflation on your coverage, not to mention the uncertainty of health care costs and public policy 20 or 30 years from now, why buy it earlier than that? 'If there's a liklihood you might develop a health problem that makes long-term-care insurance expensive, you might want to buy it sooner', says Chuck Mondin of the United Seniors Health Cooperative, a nonprofit advocacy group. Otherwise, wait."

gibby -- There was a reduced-benefit clause in the LTC policies we took, too. I was wrong when I wrote that we took them 15 years ago. It was 20! Also, we had to pay in for TEN years, not TWO, to (possibly) get something back. We'd paid in $11,000 in premiums at the end of ten years. This was a group LTC policy from Hancock, offered to us by my DH's then-employer. After ten years we became eligible for reduced-amount benefits. Each policy will pay $45/day for *skilled nursing care*, to a lifetime max of $82,000. The verbiage on any other type of care is obscure with lots of hoops and mazes. Looking at it now, I think we will have aided tbe taxpayer -- seems to me these benefits would reduce the cost of our care to Medicare. If I'd had any doubts about problems collecting on the policies, they were sustained when it took me six months to get a letter from Hancock stating that each of us had actually qualified for this reduced-benefit coverage. We eventually received single-page letters, undated and without signatures, with a lot of 'may qualify' and 'could be' phrasing. Their legal department could send us packing without breaking a sweat. Our situation is different than yours as to probable need for the policy. I'm glad you'll take that opt-out clause. You might want to see a letter stating exactly what YOUR reduced benefits will be, specific to YOUR policy and YOUR premiums, before you sign up.

Like Jim_1, we evaluated our risk profile for morbidity and decided on buying it. We have the equivalent of "Cadillac" LTCi (I guess that might be Mercedes-Benz or Bentley, these days, lol), purchased through the state pension fund which polices the LTC carriers very strictly. It's costly. But we knew that going in. I'd worked in insurance for almost 20 yrs and still have friends in the industry, including corporate actuaries. I told DH that the original pricing was too low and we should be ready to budget for premium increases in the future. Those increases have happened, and fortunately we're still able to afford the premiums. We have no intention of letting them go. Our morbidity risk is still high. In 2013 we moved my MIL to a wonderful full-care senior facility. She had early dementia but was fine with a regular daily routine. She was a sociable sort but shy about making friends on her own, so the facility was great for her. She was age 85 when she moved in, and sure she was still "too young" for this place. Imagine her shock when she was seated at a dining table with three other residents, and she was the YOUNGEST. One of her new companions was 100 yrs old and had been living in the facility for 30 years! Because MIL needed to have enough $$$ to afford Memory Care as she declined, we were and still are, conversant with what facilities charge for Skilled Nursing and Memory Care in our area. Interestingly, when we were researching facilities for MIL, there was little difference in the Asst. Living monthly rents, although costs for services varied, between the for-profit and non-profit facilities. But when looking into SN and MC units, the difference was substantial, to the tune of more than $3K/monthly. It had nothing to do with the quality of care; the non-profit we selected for MIL was one of the more reasonable ones yet is rated 3rd in the state. In 2015, the cost for SN/MC at this facility was $8500/mo. You need to remember although this cost is inclusive of all medical services, personal items and some extras deemed non-essential are NOT provided by any facility we interviewed. Such items, for increased comfort or emotional support, are the responsibility of the resident or resident's family, so that is an additional cost. It should also be noted that all the facilities we interviewed did not accept Medicaid patients at all as initial residents. All of the non-profits and a couple of the for-profits said their policy was to apply for Medicaid for residents who eventually ran out of funds (helping defray those SN/MC costs is one of the major expenses in a facility's General Budget). Some of the for-profits, however, said if a resident ran out of funds, they were asked to leave. These facilities would contact the state to arrange for a transfer to a Medicaid facility that would accept the resident: no choice of where to go, btw. As pointed out above, if you think there is any risk of needing Medicaid, it would be wise to find out the laws in your state, AND STAY UP TO DATE ON THEM. Medicaid is 50% federally funded and is always dependent upon the goodwill of Congress for its funding. Currently 80% of the U.S. elderly in SN and MC facilities are being funded by Medicaid. HTH.