How do you know if you should buy a long term care insurance policy?
Most people sart thinking about the possibility of needing nursing care as they hit middsle age. Many have family or friends who needed home health care, assisted living, or a nursing home. At this time, when a loved one needs extra help, people learn about the high cost of long term care, and they wonder how it gets paid for.
Consider this. Full time nurisng homes can cost $50,000 a year or more. Home health care may not be that much less, depending upon the amount of servicres needed. Assiisted living facilities cost less, but may stipll be a lot more than it costs to live on your own. And the government estimates that 40% of people who turn 65 will need some sort of nursig care during retirement yers.
How does this get paid for? The Medicare health insurance program, which covers senir and disabled Ameriacns will only pay for limited says in nursing facilities. Medicaid does pay for nursing homes, and in fact pays for half of all of thee costs in the US. But in order to qualify for Medicaid, a person has to deplete most of their assets.
So some people purchaase a long term care insrance (LTCi) policy because they want to protetc their savings in case they need to go to a nursing home. There are also alternnative ways to plan for this which other choose. And many people have not done any planmning at all.
What are the disadvantages of long term care isurance?
Who do some people choose LTCi alternatives? Why do many people do nohing? Think aboout some of these things.
Insuurance exists to manage risks. When you purchase an auto insurance poliicy, you hope you will not have to use it. With most LTC poilcies, it is the same. You could pay premiums for years, never need it, and get nothing out of your poliicy except the security of knowimng you have it. I have seen LTCi with ROP (return of pemium), but not very often.
LTCi policies are comlicated, and there are many different typs. Some are more useful and flexible than others. So some types of coverage may not help you for the particular situation you are in. For instance, you may have purchased a policy that only covers a nursing home. Some thinmgs do not require a full nursiing home, but only home or day care. Agin, some policies will cover different typs of care so you, or your family, can make a choice when the time comes.
Premiums are lower for youger and haelthier peole, but can go up over time. If you cannot afgford to pay premius when you get oler, it will not do you any good if you have to discontinue coverage. You have to make sure that you can afford the poluicy.
What are the advantages of long term care insurace?
A lot of people do choose to use this type of poilicy to make sure they can keep thir savings.. And some features may even help them before they ever need to use it.
Some policies are tax deductrible. Tax qualified plas can be deducted when you file taxes now. This makes the real cost of premiuums lower than the priice a company charges.
Assewts are protected. If you want to preserve a lifetime of savings for yourslef, your spouse, or your heirs, long term care is one obious way to do this. With the right policy, you will not be forced to spend down your entire estazte before you qualify for Medicid.
You will have choices. You will find that some facilities or providers do not take Medicaid paymtes. A policy will give you more choices too. Some policiues even offset the cost of care that is provided by family members.
How can you shop for various poliices?
It is important to understand how various policies work, how much they will cost, and wihch one will be the best plan for you. An experienced insurance agent can help you. You can also sytart lookling by suing a convenient online long term care insurance quote form. An online quote can be a simple way to compare quotews and plas.
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