One of the hardest things in shopping for long-term care insurance is that the different policies are almost impossible to compare the first step is…

Try: One of the hardest things in shopping for long-term care insurance is that the different policies are almost impossible to compare the first step is to choose a well known insurance company because you probably won’t be using the policy for a very long time you want to make sure the company will still be around when you need it make sure that the insurer is rated in the top two categories by one of the services that rates insurance companies like a m best moodys or standard & poor poor’s most of the time policies provide a daily benefit up to a specified dollar amount for a specified period of time for instance a policy may provide a daily benefit level of 150 for three years of coverage for a total potential benefit of 165 000 things to consider what is covered you can purchase a policy that only covers nursing home care or one that will also cover home health and assisted living care most policies today cover care no matter where it is provided what is the trigger for qualifying for coverage typically policies base qualification on cognitive impairment or the need for assistance in two or three activities of daily living dressing toileting eating transferring bathing and continence inflation rider while 150 with your income may be enough to cover your cost of care today what about 10 or 20 years from now buyers are given the option of purchasing an inflation rider with the policy which typically provide that the daily benefit increases by 5 percent a year either on a flat or compound basis such riders can significantly increase the annual premiums a rule of thumb some advisors follow is that purchasers under age 70 should purchase an inflation rider and those over age70 should not elimination period the next choice is the length of the elimination period which is the period of time the insured must wait before the policy will kick in you will have to pay long-term care expenses while you wait this waiting period can be between 0 and 90 days or even longer the longer the elimination period the lower the premium claims record the most important variable in choosing between companies has to do with their claims record do they honor claims on their policies on a timely basis without too much hassle or do they put up roadblocks every step of the way keep in mind that if in order to qualify for insurance you fail to tell the insurer about an illness the company may refuse you coverage at the time benefits are needed it is better to be denied a policy and to be able to plan knowing that coverage is not available than to believe that coverage will be forthcoming only to have it denied when it is needed likewise you should make sure that you purchase from an insurance company that evaluates–or in insurance company parlance underwrites –the policy from day one if not the company could refuse you coverage when they evaluate the application at a later date other things to consider policies also offer the option of naming a second person to receive notice of any late premium payment in the past many policyholders stopped paying premiums due to the onset of cognitive impairment losing the policies just when they needed them now at least someone else can be given notice and the opportunity to step in and save the policy many potential purchasers of long-term care insurance object to the fact that in the best case scenario they’ll never use the policies and will never reap a benefit from their investment as a result some companies are beginning to offer combined long-term care and life insurance products the buyer will have to determine whether this is a better deal than separate long-term care and life insurance policies one of the drawbacks of long-term care insurance is that companies are usually unwilling to guarantee that the premiums will not rise over time one solution is an option offered by some companies known as 10-pay policies these policies only require 10 annual premium payments and then the policies are paid up for life of course the premiums are higher over those 10 years but when done the client client’s long-term care funding is complete information references "long term care insurance " available at

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Categories: Sage, Topic, Cognitive Intellectual, Financial, Medical Physical, Verbal Communication, Poor Verbal Comm, Cognitive Awareness, Unaware

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Keywords: Insurance paying for long term care long term care cognitive impairment

*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed

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