As you brought up people stay in their home. I’ve actually had 3 family members dealing with alzheimer’s. The drain it had on my family and my mother in particular (because she’s a nurse) was really tough. Trying to maintain a full-time job, checking on my family member and dealing with the getting in home care was not only time consuming but expensive.

The best feature to a LTC policy is the ability to to have choices and flexibility. You can stay in your home longer, you can choose when and what type of a facility to go into and most important you can pick the facility. Without a policy, you might be limited on choices by costs or worse yet the state my get to choose where you go.

I’m not sure I’m sold on this product–if we assume most people will need long-term care (if I’m interpreting the term correctly based on your definition) and the pricing models for the insurance reflect that, aren’t we just better off saving the money for decades and profiting off the interest?

And since I’m already ranting, what happened to the good-old-days when family actually stayed home and took care of the grandparents? Most of my relatives who live in Europe have never heard of a nursing home. I know, I know–it’s different here.

Anyways, thought I’d play Devil’s advocate. What do you think?