A reverse mortgage is only a good idea if you have no one else to leave the home to when you die.
If you've paid off your mortgage and want to stay in your home until you die or get ill then it could be okay to get a reverse mortgage.
Keep in mind though with a reverse mortgage the bank may be returning some of your money that you paid on the house but you still have to maintain the home and pay taxes and insurance.
If you want to keep the home or sale the home later then you'll need to pay back all the money the bank paid to you in the reverse mortgage loan.
If you've paid off your home in full and you have someone to leave the home to or want them to sell your home so that your funeral expenses and other debts can be paid off then don't take out a reverse mortgage because when you take out a reverse mortgage the bank can take over the home since they loaned you money.
The house is basically the collateral for the reverse mortgage loan.
If you can't pay back the reverse mortgage loan and you need to move into a nursing home or want to move elsewhere then the house will go back to the bank for the money you owed to them.
Reverse mortgages sound good in a way but really they're not.
If I wanted to have more money in retirement I'd sell my home for a profit and then move somewhere else with those profits.
Then you could pay cash for another house and have money left over without doing the reverse mortgage.