What About Long Term Care?

This is a relatively new type of health insurance, which has been developed in response to consumer demand. In some ways, it resembles Disability insurance. You will only collect on this policy if you need long-term care, and your policy premiums are paid up, just like with Disability insurance. And, as with Disability insurance, you hope you never have to collect on it.

This insurance is geared towards taking care of you if you become unable to take care of yourself. Many more people are living longer and are requiring long term care related to chronic conditions or terminal conditions. However, just like Health insurance or other medically related insurances, you are best to be thinking about getting this coverage long before you would ever need it. The older you are when you negotiate your policy, the higher your premiums will be because you will pose a greater risk to the insurer.

Why long-term care insurance? The costs associated with a quality nursing home or in-home care providers are rapidly becoming very expensive. Many of us would exhaust our savings long before our need for care would finish. As with any medical emergency, the depletion or elimination of our savings is a significant burden for our families or loved ones.

Long-term Care insurance recognizes the high cost of nursing home or in-home care. It provides money for you to handle those costs. In fact, you can expect to pay between $40,000 and $100,000 per year for nursing home care. How long would it take you to exhaust your savings with those kinds of costs staring you in the face? In-home care can be just as expensive depending on what level of care you or your loved one requires. Health insurance normally does not cover this. So this is money out of your pocket.

Is it for you? If you have very little money and will likely qualify for Medicaid, the answer is no. If you have so much money that it will be no financial burden to pay for the cost of quality care at any level, the answer is no. However, if you are a middle-class family who wants to have some choice in the type of care that your members receive when elderly, convalescing or dying, then you should consider this insurance.