When you are budgeting for retirement you must be realistic about your anticipated debits and credits. This is going to take some research into the realm of elder law, and along these lines you would do well to gain an understanding of long-term care costs.
A lot of people don’t concern themselves with the possibility of incurring these expenses for two reasons. One of them is the notion that Medicare will take care of everything if they do in fact need to reside in a nursing home or assisted living community at some point in time.
The other reason why so many individuals make no plans for this contingency is because they think that it is unlikely that they will ever need long-term care.
The fact is that these are both misconceptions. Medicare does not pay for an extended stay in a nursing home or assisted living community and according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services the majority of people who are fortunate enough to reach the age of 65 will indeed need long-term at some point in time.
It is not easy to simply pull out your checkbook and write a check for nursing home costs. Using today’s figures you could be presented with a bill in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This situation would be challenging even if you can count on long-term care costs staying the same as they are right now. But in fact, they have been rising by around 5% per year and geriatric care experts expect this steady upward spiraling to persist into the foreseeable future.
Elder law attorneys can guide you toward solutions if you are concerned about your ability to address these costs. If you are realistic and proactive you can take steps to prepare yourself. On the other hand, if you keep your head in the sand you could find yourself in a difficult situation during the latter stages of your life.
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