Lorie Konish at CNBC covered a new survey showing 39% of middle-class households expect to turn to Medicare to pay for long-term care. I told her what I see in my office: people assume Medicare is their long-term care plan. It isn't, and finding that out during a crisis is the worst possible time.
The article walks through the three real options, Medicaid, insurance or self-funding, and puts numbers on the stakes. A semiprivate nursing home room runs about $114,975 a year at the national median. Nearly 20% of middle-class households plan to self-fund, which is a plan only if the assets are actually there and earmarked.
My advice on timing was direct. Start planning for long-term care in your 50s or 60s, not your 70s, and I would tell people to do it even earlier if they have the means. Shopping for coverage earlier lowers premiums, and it opens up riders that may not be affordable later, like cost-of-living adjustments that keep the daily benefit in line with inflation.
This is one of the largest unplanned costs in retirement, and the fix is a decision made early, not a scramble made late.
Read the full article at CNBC →
