I’ve seen it pop up again and again.  In yesterday’s Courier Post Online, the article "Not All Need Long Term Care Insurance" was posted.  It stated that long term care insurance need not be purchased by two groups: A) those who earn less than $50,000 and have few assets and B) those who earn more than $50,000 and have assets of at least $300,000 to $400,000.

The author’s thought process for group B is that "experts say that you will likely have money to cover your long-term care."  This is an insane argument because if you have the assets, shouldn’t you protect them with insurance?  This argument only works if you plan on leaving nothing to your estate.  In fact, you could easily burn through these funds and actually have to have your children finish paying for your long term care.

The thought process on group A seems to be even worse because if you earn that little and have no assets "you will most likely qualify for Medicaid."  So, in other words…don’t plan, you don’t need to take responsibility for yourself, the rest of us will pay for you.  Not only that, but you are leaving your fate in the hands of the government…you start to lose choices at that point.

This goes back to the issue: who is going to pay for my long term care?  If I don’t purchase long term care insurance and I don’t have the savings to pay, I will have to rely on Medicaid which is you, my children and my grandchildren.  This was highlighted in a different article that was on Chattanooga’s television station WDEF’s website. 

This article quotes Stephen Moses, the President of the Center for Long Term Care Reform, as saying "It is a gigantic debt we’ve transferred to our children and grandchildren."   He continues by saying, "The government has paid for long term care since 1965 and the public is in denial about the risk….as we get older we’re going to produce a tremendous strain on the retirement security program, medicare, acute care security and medicaid for long term security."

So, I guess the choice is yours…