Rising Health Costs A Concern To Americans
The rising cost of health care is a concern now for many Americans because the average life expectancy is increasing. Now that more people are living longer, they are incurring more health costs than they have in the past. Fidelity Mutual reported that while the cost of health care has decreased in recent years, the average lifetime medical costs still loom around $230,000. Prices recently decreased because of the passage of the Affordable Care Act and its regulation of the prescription drug program of Medicare. Even with that fact, the costs of Long Term Care (LTC) are still increasing. In the past year, the average cost for a private nursing home was $77,745, which was a $17,520 increase from the previous year.
Meanwhile, the industry that might provide some relief to the problem has continued to struggle. The market for Long-Term Care Insurance has not done well in the past few years. Recently, the price for one of these policies increased between 6% and 17%. Some insurance carriers who offer this type of insurance have either withdrawn from the market or have discontinued their policies.
Under these circumstances, it is likely beneficial for a person to begin planning for the future. Now, a client may want to include a method to pay for health care costs in their estate planning preparations. A client may also consider a number of options to prepare for retirement, such as preparing a savings account in anticipation of retirement, continuing employment, updating a prescription drug plan, or purchasing long-term care insurance.
See Mark Miller, A Vexing Retirement Planning Problem? Predicting Health Care Costs, Registered Rep, Apr. 13, 2012.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.