Long Term Care Coverage

What is Long Term Care Coverage?

Long Term Care Coverage is an insurance product that provides coverage for nursing home stays and home health care service.

Will my Medical or Medicare coverage pay for those services?

Only when you are recovering from an illness or injury and need short-term services from skilled professionals. Services covered through long term care policies are typically provided by individuals who lend you assistance for so-called activities of daily living because you are too frail to do them on your own. These include assistance with feeding, bathing, dressing, transferring, etc.

Should I have Long Term Care Coverage?

Everyone should consider having Long Term Care Coverage given the cost of paying for those services out-of-pocket, should one need them.

How do I shop for Long Term Care Coverage?

You need to go through a licensed professional, an insurance broker, to shop for Long Term Care Coverage.

Can anyone get Long Term Care Coverage?

No. This is a product that is still medically underwritten, meaning you complete a health questionnaire and if you are not healthy enough to be considered a reasonable risk for the insurance company, they can deny you coverage. That is why it is advisable to consider your options while your health is still good.

Is Long Term Care Coverage expensive?

It can be, but unlike other insurance products you actually choose many of the parameters of Long Term Care Coverage like the daily limit, such as whether it is $200 or $300 a day or more, or whether you want inflation protection (yes, you do).

Long Term Care Coverage seems to be in the news all the time. Why?

Because premiums have gone up substantially. Insurance companies providing this product in the past have underpriced many existing policies primarily because they underestimated how long people who bought the policies would live and how many would require services.

What if I don’t get it and need services?

Your options aren’t good then. You would either pay for those services out of pocket, spend down to essentially a poverty level and go on Medicaid which would cover those services, or have a family member or friend take care of you. That is why you want to consider how you pay for long term care services should you need them one day.