Being self-insured leaves you and your family exposed to the possiblity that you will have to spend out of pocket if you needed long term care. While uninsured if you have a change of health that wasn't life threatening but it might disqualify you from long term care insurance.

Your choices today:

Self-insure (self pay)
Medicaid
Long term care insurance

Self-insure: you pay for long term care expenses out of savings after health insurance and/or Medicare benefits run out.

Medicaid: state welfare health care. To qualify you must be at the poverty level or spend down your savings until you are.

Long term care insurance: provides financial and support services for long term care.

The question to answer is, "If you had a stroke tomorrow and needed a number of years of care, what would the consequences be to those you care about?"

You may never need care, but what if you did? Are you OK with the consequences of being uninsured for long term care?

Did you ever buy life insurance or disability insurance? The reason you bought that insurance is the same reason people buy long term care insurance. They do it to minimize the consequences to those they care about in case something happens. The ball is in your court today, but it may not be tomorrow.