A Long Term Care Insurance is not the same as health insurance. Long Term Care Insurance is an insurance coverage that’s designed to help you pay for long-term care expenses including living expenses if you suddenly became unable to work for a specific amount of time or until death. Long Term Care Insurance is becoming an essential part of a financial plan. The probability of you needing long term care at some time in the future is around 65%. Whether it’s from an accident or illness; at some point in your life you stand a good chance of needing this type of insurance. Even a broken leg could keep you from working, shopping and taking care of yourself and your family. Today, you’re healthy. But what about tomorrow? What if you, your spouse or your parents become physically or mentally incapacitated? Long term care insurance could be needed, including care in your own home or in a care facility. This would be devastating for you and your families financially. You see, most care facilities require that you deplete all of your savings and assets before they will except government funding, so you and your family could loose all your savings, your home, your children’s education funds, and the list goes on.
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To protect yourself and your family – both you and your spouse should consider purchasing a Long Term Care Insurance policy. Long Term Care Insurance covers the medical expenses and assisted living needs for a long-term disability or illness. Most health insurance policies will pay for medical, hospital and medicine expenses. However, these policies usually have limits on length of stay and types of coverage and will not pay for assistance in your home or a stay in a care facility. If you are still uncertain if Long Term Care Insurance is right for you and your family, ask yourself the following:
- How do I preserve my independence?
- What if my children can’t take care of me, at home or or the cost of a care facility?
- How can I have the ability to choose the best care?
- How can I protect my families’ assets and life’s savings?
- What if I want to leave my estate to my heirs?
- Can I afford an average of $45,000 a year in care expenses?
- How do I avoid welfare?
- How do I avoid paying for out-of pocket costs?
- Can my savings plans withstand 1 to 2 years of long-term care costs?
- Am I prepared to live longer than my parents?
- Medicare pays very little for long-term care, how will I manage after Medicare ends?
- Medicaid pays after I’ve lost my savings and assets, am I prepared to live by government means?
Long Term Care Insurance will help defray costs of Long Term Care, this is why Long Term Care Insurance is so important! With Long Terms Care, you could:
- Having assisted live-in help or other assistance that would help with activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing.
- Live in a skilled or custodial care home and / or an assisted living facility.
Although Long Term Care Insurance is costly, it’s even more devastating to you, your family and financial situation without it! Just think about this…what would happen if you or your spouse could no longer work and bring home a paycheck. What would happen if you had multiple high hospital, doctor, therapy and medicine bills? Frightening thought, huh!?! It is difficult to predict who will need Long Term Care and for how long. The cost of a long-term care policy depends primarily on three basic factors: your , , and . So be pre paired! Most plans let you choose the amount of the coverage you need, as well as how and where you want to use your benefits. A comprehensive plan includes benefits for all levels of care, skilled to custodial. Most policies are guaranteed renewable, meaning once you qualify, you’ll remain eligible as long as you pay your premiums. BE CAREFUL! If you stop making payments and your insurance is canceled, you may have to prove your health enough for the insurance company to re-write a Long Term Care Insurance policy.
How much coverage you will need? To figure out the amount of Long Term Care Insurance coverage you need, consider the cost of long term care services and the income you will loose if you’re unable to go back to work.
Some policies limit coverage for services provided in nursing homes and do not provide coverage for services delivered in your home, while others cover both nursing home and home care. Others companies pay for care only if provided by adult day care center. Each policy defines what benefits it will pay, so it is important that you carefully read the contract to understand what is offered. Home care coverage is not as easy to cover. Some companies offer to pay for skilled nursing care in your residence, but only if provided by certain providers such as registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and licensed rehabilitation therapists. Because of the potential for being defrauded and the difficulty of monitoring benefits, rarely will an insurance company pay benefits to family member who performs home care services. It’s best to look for a policy that provides for a range of services, including home care services, since the nature and extent of the care to be required in the future is uncertain.
- Daily Benefit Amount
- Weekly Benefits
- Benefit Period
- Facilities
- Waiting Period
- Inflation Protection
- Mental disease and nervous disorders, however some insurance carriers will cover Alzheimer’s
- Injuries that are self-inflicted, such as in suicide attempts
- Addictions to drugs and alcohol
- Injuries and illnesses inflicted by war
- Treatment already paid by the government
Some policies offer optional coverage that allows you to tailor the insurance plan to meet your needs.
These include:
- Bed reservations – if you are in an assisted living facility or nursing home, and you need to be hospitalized, this feature will hold your space
- Informal care – care given in your home by friends, family members and other non-licensed caregivers who don’t normally live in your home
- Caregiver training – coverage of training of a family member or other caregiver, to care for you
- Respite care – temporary care if your informal caregiver (a family member for example) needs to take some time off
- Premium refund on death – this returns to your estate the premiums you paid, less any benefits paid, depending on your age at death
By planning ahead, you’ll be providing peace of mind for you and your family’s future. Long term care insurance offers an affordable way to protect your assets.
Types of care:
- Skilled care – Skilled care is needed for ….MORE
- Custodial care – Custodial care coverage is needed when….MORE
Options:
- Flexibility in benefits
- Amount of daily benefit
- Length of coverage
- Waiting periods before coverage begins
- Coverage of cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s
Location of care:
- Your home
- A nursing home
- An adult day center
- An assisted living facility
Because long term care insurance claims must often be paid ten or twenty years after the policy is written, it’s always important to check the financial strength of the insurance company.
You shouldn’t assume that the government will help you. Medicare does not cover many long-term care costs. Medicaid benefits are only available to you after you’ve depleted all of your savings and other assets such as selling your home. This not only leaves you financially insecure, but your family as well. Say you want to leave your home to your children after your death, but you have a debilitating illness that lasts few years of your life. If this is the case, you may have to sell your home to cover living and medical expenses. State Medicaid programs rescue only those families who descend to the poverty level.
ALTERNATIVE
If you don’t have insurance, long term care can be expensive, depending upon the type and length of care you need and the place in which it is provided. Currently, the cost of a nursing home averages about $45,000 a year. This cost is only an average and varies widely across the country. Are you ready for this? Most Americans aren’t. That’s where Long Term Care Insurance can help protect you and your families’ future.
If you have any Long Term Care Insurance questions or for a FREE, no-obligation rate quote, go to long-term-care-insurance-quotes-online.com.
