How to Find Quality Long Term Care Insurance
Long term care insurance has been gradually growing in recognition and popularity. Buying long term care insurance now can save you and your family many thousands of dollars in the years to come.
What is Long-Term Care Insurance?
In general, this term describes policies that help cover the cost of an individual's care or supervision over the course of an illness, disability, or simple aging.
Long term care insurance is not a cheap policy, but because more than half of all Americans will need long term care during their lives, it can be invaluable in protecting assets and savings later in life.
Why is this type of policy so important? Because standard health policies, Medicare, and medigap rarely cover the kind of extensive and/or flexible care many Americans will require at some point in their lives. And while Medicaid does cover many of the same things long term care insurance does, you generally won't qualify for the coverage unless you have little or no savings and assets.
The Costs Of Buying Long Term Care Insurance
The yearly cost of long term care insurance can vary from as little as $250 per year to as much as $6,000 or more. You'll probably pay somewhere in the middle. The premium depends on a combination of your age, your health, the extent of the coverage you're buying, and the age at which you first purchased the policy.
The best long term care insurance policies will maintain your original premium for as long as you continue coverage - the big plus of buying sooner rather than later.
While this may seem like a lot to pay per year, the cost of personal home or nursing home care is so much greater. And a good long term care insurance policy, unlike Medicaid, for example, will guarantee you flexibility in care.
What's covered under a long term policy
This can vary a lot, but common coverages include: residential assistance, round-the-clock care, visits by skilled medical workers, rehabilitative care, nursing home stays, and hospice care.
Because this type of policy involves daily care, the long term care insurance companies will usually contribute a dollar amount toward care each day for so many days. You decide the duration and amount of your coverage when you purchase the policy.
And "when" is a big issue when it comes to buying long term care insurance. The cost of coverage at age 65 is about 3 times as much as the same coverage at 50. (And buying long term care insurance if you're already ill can be almost impossible.) So if you know long term care insurance is a coverage you'll want in the future, it's wise to start researching policies now.
One last financial benefit of long term care insurance: tax deductions. Not only are long term care insurance premiums deductible, but any eventual benefits you receive are tax-free too.
Getting The Best Long Term Care Insurance Policy Possible
The four-easy-steps to getting the best long term care insurance policy possible is to do research, compare policies, take your timeand get the ball rolling.
Long term care insurance is not an easy coverage to understand. And there are so many policy options available it can be hard to know what to choose. Fortunately, there's a lot of help out there too. Long term care insurance companies, regulators, and advocacy groups all publish helpful literature, so you won't want for knowledge.
But how to approach it all? I recommend that you balance research and shopping. Examine your present and future needs wisely, Get quotes on long term care insurance while you research what available.
Take some action, get information (one of the hardest things to do when you're thinking about an optional coverage like long term care insurance) and and a licensed insurance agent is one of the best sources for policy information.
Keep this in mind:
The typical cost for a long term care insurance plan is $800 per year if you buy the plan when you are 50 years old and $1,600 per year at age 65.
