Should you consider Long Term Care Insurance?
Long term care insurance is becoming increasingly popular as the oldest of the enormous baby boomer generation has begun entering their senior years. Long term care insurance covers custodial care expenses that many people may not even realize could become a tremendous financial strain on them as they age, such as nursing homes, home hospice, visiting nurses and care for age related illness.
While it’s impossible to predict what you might need in the future, the best time to start thinking about purchasing a long-term care policy is while you’re still middle aged and healthy. This is because this is the time when your policy will not only cost the least, but you will have the best chance of getting approved for a policy based on your health. If you are already beyond middle aged it may still be possible to obtain a long term care policy. The insurance experts at Joe Karsner & Associates can help you figure out if you qualify for one of these plans, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.
So how do you know if a long term care policy is worth the investment for you? Consider this: did you know that the estimated cost of a nursing home ranges anywhere from $40,000 a year to well over $100,000? Furthermore, did you know that visiting nurses and home hospice rates aren’t much better—ranging from anywhere between $2000 to nearly $8000 a month? Now consider this: can your adult children afford this expense? Can you? Most Medicaid and Medicare benefits simply do not cover enough of these costs on their own, leaving you to pay the difference out of pocket. For many seniors, this simply is not possible. That’s why a long term care policy may be beneficial.
If you decide a long term care policy is the way to go, be sure to consider some important factors when choosing your policy. First, remember that you do have a choice about what your policy covers. In addition to having a policy that allows you to choose between home or nursing home care, you can choose to apply your policy only towards a nursing home if that’s what you’d prefer, or only towards home hospice if you’d rather not go to a nursing home. The benefits to this are that you need not worry about ending up somewhere you’d rather not spend your senior years. Your policy will dictate the type of care you receive, which assures that your wishes are carried out, whether you are well enough to speak for yourself.
Make sure that your policy will cover you for a long enough time before it ends. You don’t want to have to leave a nursing home because your policy coverage ends too soon. Coverage can range anywhere from 2 years to the rest of your life. It’s completely up to you. Also, be sure to add inflation protection, which will cover you if the cost of the type of care you may need increases over the years.