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I think you mentioned earlier that you have a separate quarters on your property where home care workers could live or stay?
If not - or anyway - I have a question - I often read and hear that some people in various health conditions become too much for the spouse and/or home care workers to take care of in their personal home - and they must be moved to a skilled nursing facility or nursing home in order to be cared for.
I wonder what your thoughts are on that.
Our house with the casita for live-in help is in Mexico. I have a friend here who had increasing care for his Mother (she lived across the street from us). It started with a driver (who had a convertible, quite the scene in our little village, young handsome Mexican driving her to hair appointments, luncheons, etc.). As she aged (she lived to be 93), she had an 8 hour shift worker to help her dress, bathe, walk her on the streets for exercise, make her meals, get her ready for bed, run errands, etc.). Then it went to 16 hours, and in the last few months, 24 hour care.
Most in-home aides charge 45 to 50 pesos an hour. Here in MX, doctors and their nurses make house calls, so you do not need to pay a RN or LPN for a whole shift. You just pay the doctor for a house call (last time I had one it as 200 pesos, maybe be more now as that was in 2008).
Right now the exchange rate is 18.5 pesos to 1 USD. We have lived here when the exchange rate was only 12:1. And when we first started visiting Mexico in 2006 it was only 10:1. But even at those rates, in-home care is reasonable her compared to the US. Even if we need 2 aids for part of the day for lifting and transporting.
^Interesting. With all the pervasive anti-immigration and "build the wall" rhetoric going on, I wonder how people are reconciling their hate with asking the same people to care for their elderly.
We just moved to a partnership state and got some quotes. I'm 68, DH is 66, both of us are in excellent health, and LTCI is still not worth it for us. Our self-insure plan is still good to go. YMMV.
We're acutely aware of assisted living risk and costs. MIL at 93 is going on her 5th (?have to check) year in ALC, my mom spent her last several months in ALC, my grandmother spent her last several years in skilled nursing, DH's aunt & uncle spent 3 years in ALC, etc. Of these, only my mom had LTCI, she didn't financially fare any better than anyone else, actually she came out a little short but it gave her some peace of mind so there's that.
That said, IMO everyone should get some quotes, do a risk/benefit analysis.
Comparisons to home and auto insurance are just silly, apples and oranges. Entirely different set of assumptions, pools, benefits, risks, and costs.
Last edited by biscuitmom; 05-28-2017 at 10:33 PM..
^Interesting. With all the pervasive anti-immigration and "build the wall" rhetoric going on, I wonder how people are reconciling their hate with asking the same people to care for their elderly.
We were concerned about the US election and how Mexicans would view expats. We had lived fulltime in MX 2008-2012, leaving because my FIL in US needed our help. He died in late 2015 and it took about a year to settle the estate (DH was successor trustee and executor).
We started visiting MX again in 2016, during the campaign and again after the election and found the MXNs unchanged in their attitude towards expats. As our MXN friends put it: MX has plenty of its own bad politicians. They don't judge us by our elected leaders.
I realize a lot of this thread has been about money/expenses; I neglected our real reason for being here in MX. We love it here. The people, the culture, the weather. There's always something going on....a fiesta, a holiday, a parade. Yesterday on the walk home from lunch, we heard a marching band. Then we saw the flower festooned candeleria (horse drawn carriage) carrying a quincienera celebrant with her proud parents, followed by a small marching band, on their way to church.
The earlier you buy, the more years you are paying a premium.
The later you buy, the more outrageously expensive the premiums become.
Articles written on LTCI point toward your late 40's thru early 50's as being the best time to buy, the 'sweet spot' on the curve of time versus premiums, and at least one decade before most people start thinking of LTCI.
The following was written by an insurance association so their point of view may be slanted, but they also explain why they say you should buy early, and the cost impacts of waiting.
policies are priced so regardless of what age you start , by the time your reach the sweet spot for needing care you pay in about 1 year in anticipated snf costs .
i wish we bought earlier . by the time we finally did it i had a few blood tests along the way go in to the diabetic range .
even though now through diet and exercise ,no meds i am high normal i got a 1k surcharge for life added to the premium.
if you so much as gain to much weight you will be denied . our rep is obese and was denied .
One could travel to Switzerland - but that's a whole different story.
My MIL is temp (hopefully) in a top notch nursing home....and, yes, it is depressing for her. No matter how good they are, they suck.
We never know how the end is going to come. Hopefully quickly because I don't want to wear diapers.
I'm okay with the idea of being in a good nursing home. Wearing diapers wouldn't bother me. There are 20 year olds with ileostomies and such. That's life. Most likely I'll end life in hospice.
Every approved long-term care insurance policy purchased in California since July 1st, 2002 is regulated by the state of California's "Rate Stability Regulation". This regulation is designed to protect those who purchase long term care insurance from getting large rate increases. But this regulation does not apply to CalPERS because CalPERS is not an insurance company--CalPERS is a self-funded group.
You're probably better off getting an individual policy from Mass Mutual or Mutual of Omaha or Transamerica or New York Life. Buying an LTC insurance policy on your own will give you more consumer protections than buying coverage from a "self funded" group like CalPERS.
The Life/LTC "hybrid" policies that require a large, single premium deposit, are usually a LOUSY deal for the consumer, but a great deal for the insurance company. Here's why:
1) The insurance company keeps most of the investment earnings on the money. After deducting fees and expenses from the "credited interest rate", the growth in the cash value is negligible (usually less than 1%).
2) When long-term care is needed, the insurance company uses the single premium deposit to pay towards the cost of your care first. They use your money first before using their own money.
3) Most of these policies have no inflation protection. When it is time to make a claim the policies rarely cover the full cost of care. This means that the buyer has to pay even more of their own money towards the cost of care.
4) Between the single premium deposit and what they have to contribute to the cost of their care, the buyer usually has to cover the full cost of his/her care for at least the first 24 months of care.
A fee-only financial planner recently described his experience with these products as "nothing more than mediocre life insurance combined with mediocre LTCI".
I've calculated that if someone can safely earn 3% on their money, they are much better off keeping the single premium in their own investment portfolio, earning money on it, and then using a portion of their investment earnings to buy a traditional LTCi policy with inflation protection.
However, there are some Life/LTC hybrid policies that do not require a single premium. For example, a level premium can be paid for 20 years and then the policy is paid up with no future premium payments required. This type of Life/LTC policy can be a very good value especially for females or for someone who purchases the policy in their forties or early fifties.
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LTCI - you must bite the bullet and buy early
