CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Living in a retirement community can be expensive but most residents at Mirador Retirement Community walk through the doors with a plan already in place like Robbie Garrett.
“They said do you have long-term insurance? We said we don’t even know what that is,” said Robbie Garrett a resident at the Mirador Retirement Comunity.
Garrett has lived in Mirador for three years. She said she invested in a long-term plan more than 10 years ago.
Her current policy is enough to cover assisted living with around-the-clock care. She only wishes she could have started planning earlier in life.
“When you look at the amount of money you’re investing it seems like a lot but when you get the bill once a month you think, I’m glad I’ve got that, and I wish I had more,” she said.
According to the Better Business Bureau, living in a nursing home is expensive and Medicare or Medicaid usually only covers a portion of the costs involved.
Vanessa Hancock at the Mirador Community said medical insurance will not cover any of their health services including memory support and skilled nursing.
“If you know that there is going to be a time that you might need long-term care or assisted living and memory support. You should be doing your planning,” Hancock said.
Hancock told KZTV that a part of that planning is looking into the type of care you’ll need. Get quotes from several companies considering age, health, and desired coverage levels.
“So, we ask them to bring their policy information and we’ll get on the phone with the long-term care insurance policy to find out what their benefits are,” said Hancock.
She recommends thinking about long-term care insurance for as young as 40 years old.
An investment towards any type of care you’ll need later in life.
Long-termCare.gov provides more information on insurance coverage.
