Is Long Term Care Insurance A Waste Of Money? 
Harry Crosby , a long-term care insurance -LRB- LTCI -RRB- agent , coach and trainer , has one of the best answers to this question that I know of . It 's called `` The Two Mistakes '' . In the interest of space , I have edited his take on this important question : There are really only two mistakes you can make with long-term care insurance . Mistake number one : You get one of these plans . It doesnt matter which one . You buy a plan , pay every year , live a long happy and healthy life , die in your sleep with a smile on your face and the money you paid in is gone . Right . The money you paid in is gone . Had you known that this would be the case , you would never have purchased a long-term carepolicy . Mistake number two : You stay self-insured , which is what you are doing right now . Then you -LRB- and possibly your spouse -RRB- need care . Not only do you pay for it yourself out-of-pocket , but the rest of the burden is placed on your family . Lets look at the two mistakes . Mistake number one is that you get this plan , and your premium is about $ 2,500 a year . You live another 30 years , and at age 85 you die in your sleep with a smile on your face never needing a day of care and thus never getting a dime out of the policy . You get to the pearly gates , they look at your file , and they laugh at you because you made a $ 75,000 mistake for having this policy and never needed it . By the way , that amount is less than one year of facility care in todays dollars . Now , mistake number two . You decide to not get this policy and pay the premium . Twenty years from now , when you are 75 , you need care for just two years . You pay for the care out-of-pocket . Based on past trends , the average cost of future care will be about $ 350,000 . If you have to make a mistake , which mistake has the least impact on your family : the first one or the second one ? That is why top financial advisors and the federal and state government encourage people like you and I to look into LTCI . It is just common sense . 