If you could make a choice today to maintain your independence, dignity and control over your assets would you do it?
Of course you would. Choosing to purchase a Long Term Care Insurance Policy can enable you to achieve those goals.
View Shoppers Guide to Long Term Care Insurance.
If the time came when you could no longer perform everyday tasks, such as bathing, getting dressed, and making yourself breakfast, who would do it for you?
Simple tasks such as these are known as activities of daily living, or ADLs. Sometimes this is due to a chronic illness or injury, and sometimes happens as a result of the aging process, and other times because of a degenerative cognitive impairment, like Alzheimer’s disease.
Long Term Care Insurance provides benefits in order to assist with activities of daily living (ADLs) including:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Using the bathroom
- Transferring(to and from bed or chair)
- Incontinence
- Eating
Long term care is different from medical care, because it generally helps you live as you are instead of improving or correcting medical problems. A Long Term Care Insurance Policy is a way to help cover these expenses.
By the time you realize you may need long term care because you are aging or you have a medical condition that will require care, the cost of such a policy may be very expensive, or you may be uninsurable. The younger and healthier you are, the more likely it is you will be approved for coverage.
Individual long term care insurance policies are medically underwritten. This means the insurance company will take factors such as age as well as current and past health into consideration. The company will request medical records and a statement from your doctor about your health, to determine if you are eligible to purchase coverage. They also require cognitive and medical tests.
Therefore, the younger and healthier you are when you apply, the more likely you are to purchase a policy with better benefits at a lower premium.
Some people will not consider purchasing a long term care insurance policy because they believe their children or other family members will take care of them as they age. However, today many adult children are likely to live in another city or town and are often states away. These adult children often have jobs and families to support. Full time care in the event of a chronic illness or injury can have a tremendous financial and psychological impact on the caretaker, no matter how well meaning and loving the intention is. Also, care such as this may last for years. Long Term Care Insurance is one way of helping to pay for these expenses.
Don’t count on Medicare or Medicare Supplemental Insurance to pay your long term care expenses. Even though you paid into the Medicare system for years, or currently pay a hefty monthly premium for private health insurance, these programs do not cover the cost of most long term care services.
Generally, Medicare will only pay a limited benefit for skilled nursing care after a stay in the hospital, but it is not intended to, and will not provide coverage over a long period of time. In fact, if you stay in the hospital for a minimum of three days, Medicare will only partially cover the first 100 days (or 3 and a half months) in a nursing home, if you are admitted to the nursing home within 30 days of leaving the hospital. Medicare covers only limited intermittent home health care for the treatment of an illness or injury.
Current tax laws at the Federal (and some state) level may provide incentive for individuals and business to purchase “qualified” long term care insurance policies, because such policies ease the burden on Medicare and Medicaid. These tax incentives apply to individuals and businesses who itemize medical expenses. Depending on how your policy is structured, the benefits paid out from a long term care policy are generally not taxed as income.
We will discuss the differences between “qualified” and “non- qualified” policies with you as part of a comprehensive assessment of your needs. Please be aware that tax related issues should always be directed to your accountant.
What are my options?
What Long Term Care Insurance really boils down to is this: protecting your assets and making choices about your care in advance.
There are a variety of different types of long term care insurance policies. At Complete Analysis, we will educate you so you will be able to select the option which best fits your individual circumstances, and fits your budget. We will compare policies from different companies, and explain optional riders you may purchase to enhance benefits. We want you to understand what policies cover, and the way benefits are triggered and paid.
At Complete Analysis, our goal is to help you select the best possible coverage at the best possible price. We accomplish this by listening to you, answering all of your questions, and making suitable insurance recommendations. We will assist you every step of the way, from the application process to delivery of your policy. Call us now!
