Categories: HealthInsurance

Things you may not know about Long Term Care

  • Purchasing Long Term Care insurance when younger can save you money. The premium for someone who purchases a policy starting at 50 can be half of that of someone purchasing in their early 60s and about one sixth of the cost if purchased in their early 70s.
  • Purchasing a Long Term Care insurance policy when younger increases your chances for approval because you are more likely to be healthy.
  • Premiums are due annually and they can be raised if the policy issuer raises everyone’s rate within a certain class of policy holders. Premiums cannot be raised on individuals. Typically premium increases must be approved by the State.
  • You purchase a pool of available money when purchasing a Long Term Care policy. Typical policies run for 2 to 6 years. If you purchase a 3-year policy that pays $300/day you have a total available pool of $328,500. If you spend less than $300/day then your pool will stretch beyond 3 years.
  • Purchasing inflation protection with your policy is a good idea since costs are constantly rising. Purchasing 5% inflation protection means that the annual value of your policy would increase by 5% which can be substantial over time.
  • Be sure that you understand the waiting period or deductions before the LTC insurance kicks in. Some policies have specific number of days before the policy starts to pay for services. Read the policy carefully to understand whether the waiting period is just consecutive number of days or days that you actually received home care services.

    A policy may include a straight monetary deduction before it begins to pay. In this case you would have to pay a home care worker a certain amount out of pocket before receiving any payment.

  • Insurers offer many options for LTC policies. An interesting one is that you can share your policy with a spouse so that you have a combined pool. For example if you and your spouse each purchase a 6 year policy and one of you does not need LTC while the other one does that person can use a combined 12 years of coverage.
  • Only select a LTC insurance policy from a large established company that will be around if you need them.

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J Gold

I am a consultant for a major IT firm who is approaching retirement and contemplating when to hang it up.

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  • It's true that there are government programs that provide long term care coverage but these aren't that reliable compared to your other options. Their limitations hinder people from receiving proper care they need, which can help them recuperate from their injuries, disabilities and conditions. And because of this, people resort to purchasing private insurance. You can read in http://www.ltcoptions.com/ that there are long term care insurance companies that offer affordable coverage. It's not as expensive as you think as long as you explore your options first. Also, this is the cheapest way to pay for caregiver, nursing home and other ltc services since the cost of long term care increases every year.

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Published by
J Gold
10 years ago

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