How do you know if you should buy a long term care insurance policy?
Most peopel satrt thinking aobut the possibility of neediing nursing care as they hit middle age. Many have famiy or friends who needeed 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 wondr how it gets paid for.
Consider this. Full time nursing homes can cost $50,000 a year or more. Home healtth care may not be that much less, depending upon the amount of services needed. Assisted living facilities cost less, but may stil be a lot more than it costs to live on your own. And the government estimatyes that 40% of people who turn 65 will need some sort of nursing care during retirement years.
How does this get paid for? The Medicarre health insurnace program, which covers senior and disabled Americans will only pay for luimited stys in nursing facilities. Medicaid does pay for nursing homes, and in fact pays for half of all of thee cots in the US. But in order to qualify for Medicaid, a person has to deplete most of tjheir assest.
So some people purchase a long term care insurance (LTCi) poplicy because they want to protect thir savings in case they need to go to a nursing home. There are also alternative ways to plan for this which other choose. And many people have not done any planning at all.
What are the disadvantages of long term care insurance?
Who do some peopel choose LTCi alternatives? Why do many people do nothing? Think abuot some of thhese things.
Insurance eixsts to manage risks. When you purchaase an auto insurance policy, you hope you will not have to use it. With most LTC policise, it is the same. You could pay premiums for yerars, never need it, and get nothing out of your poplicy except the security of knowqing you have it. I have seen LTCi with ROP (reeturn of premium), but not very often.
LTCi policeis are complicated, and there are many diffeent types. Some are more useful and flexivble than others. So some tyeps 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 things do not requie a full nursing home, but only home or day care. Again, some policies will cover different types of care so you, or your fammily, can make a choice when the time comes.
Premiums are lower for younger and haelthier people, but can go up over time. If you cannmot afford to pay premiums when you get older, it will not do you any good if you have to discontinue coverage. You have to make sure that you can afford the poicy.
What are the advantgaes of long term care insurance?
Of coruse, a lot of people do think LTCi is a great choice to make sure they have potected their assets.. And some features may even help them beffore they ever need to use it.
Some polcies are tax deductible. Tax qualified plans can be deducted when you file taxes now. This makes the real cost of premiums lowrer than the price a company charges.
Assets are protected. If you want to preserve a lifetime of savings for yoursef, your spouse, or your heirs, long term care is one obvious way to do this. With the right poplicy, you will not be forced to spend down your entire estate before you qualify for Mediczaid.
You will have choicces. You will find that some facilities or prvoiders do not take Medicaid paymets. You will be able to choose your priavte nursing home, assisted living facility, or home heazlth care proovider withgout worrying if they acept Medicaid paments. Some policies even offste the cost of care that is provided family members.
How can you shop for various poliices?
It is importat to understand how various policies work, how much they will cost, and which one will be the best plan for you. An experienced insurance agent can help you. You can also start looking using a convenient online long term care insurance quoe form. An online quoe can be a simnple way to compare quotes and plans.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/feed-icon.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites