Many consumers still think it will cover long-term care costs.
Consumers still think Medicare does something
that it does not actually do: Cover ongoing long-term care (LTC) costs.
A research arm of Bankers Life and Casualty
Company has published new data on that misunderstanding in a report based
on a Web-based survey of 1,299 U.S. residents ages 49 to 67. The survey
participants had annual household income of $25,000 to $75,000.
Only 11 percent said they would expect their
children to provide care or pay for care, but just 13 percent said they had
private long-term care insurance (LTCI).
About 20 percent said they would depend on
Medicaid — a program for the poor that does pay for nursing home care — to
cover their LTC costs.
But 52 percent said they expect Medicare — a
program that does not normally cover the cost of nursing home care or assisted
living facility care — to pay for their care.
About 54 percent of the survey participants
said they were familiar with the concept of LTCI but had not yet bought a
policy. Another 34 percent said they were unfamiliar with product.
Forty percent of the participants said they
had been caregivers. Acting as a caregiver increased the likelihood that a
boomer had at least considered buying LTCI coverage to 24 percent, from 15
percent for the general boomer population.
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