Long Term Care Insurance for Mom

Posted April 21, 2010 by Cheryl Barrett

 My mom raised 5 children all by herself and we all went on to have successful lives with families of our own.  Mom worked hard all her life to support us and put a roof over our head and provided us with a decent life.  She still lives with two of my sisters in the home we that she raised us in.  We are all very close and all live close by.
 Mom retired at age 63 so that she could enjoy her life and her grandchildren.  She has always been in reasonably good health and is still active at age 74.  She has had knee replacement and has severe arthritis, but over all she gets around pretty good. She is a strong willed person and would never want to be a burden on us. She hates asking for help and will usually try to do things herself before she asks for help.
 When she retired all 5 of us (her children) got together and decided to get a Long Term Care Insurance Policy for her. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information at least 70 percent of people over age 65 will require some long-term care services at some point in their lives. This LTC Insurance lets her and we have the peace of mind that if something happened to her and she needed help in her own home she could get it, without her being a burden to her children.  We would never think of her as a burden and would gladly do whatever was needed for her to remain in her home if something happened.  But in her mind she would see herself as a burden and feel terrible asking her own children for help.  She would look at this as her taking us away from our own jobs, families and children. 
 My mom has always been the one to take care of everything and everyone.  With the LTC Insurance in place it is a way of us taking care of her while still letting her have the control and independence she needs. Knowing that if she at some point needs help she can afford and get it is comforting to all of us.
 The Long Term Care Insurance Policy gives us all peace of mind. I would recommend it to any baby boomer to get for themselves and parents.  There are many different kinds of LTC Insurance so do you research and get the one that’s right for you. A good place to start is looking at the Met Life Long Term Care Insurance website.