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Long-Term Care Insurance

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Long-term care insurance covers any help needed by persons who have a chronic illness or disability and are unable to care for themselves. Whether this care is received in a nursing home or in your own home, it covers a wide range of services beyond medical and nursing care. These services include visiting nurses, meal delivery, help with chores and even help for caregivers.

Long-term care is costly. Most policies that cover these services are indemnity policies that pay a fixed amount for each day that care is received, ranging from $50 to hundreds of dollars per day. Daily benefits for at-home care are at the lower end of the range, while nursing home care is the most expensive.

Purchasing Long-Term Care Insurance

If you are buying a long-term care policy, consider the following:

  • Which services are covered (e.g., nursing home care, home health care, adult daycare, help for caregivers). 
  • The daily payments for each service. 
  • How long the benefits will last. 
  • The maximum lifetime benefit, if any. 
  • The maximum length of coverage for each period of confinement (in a nursing home or at home). 
  • The waiting period for pre-existing conditions. 
  • What assessments or exams are needed. 
  • Whether the policy is guaranteed renewable
  • The age range for enrollment. 
  • Whether there is a waiver-of-premium. This provision means that the insurer will keep up your policy without premiums if you become totally disabled before age 60 or 65. 
  • How long the period of confinement is before premiums are waived. 
  • Whether the policy has a nonforfeiture benefit, which protects a portion of your benefits if you stop paying premiums. 
  • Whether the policy has an inflation adjustment feature, which increases your benefits by a small percentage each year. This helps ensure that coverage bought today will pay for the cost of long-term care in the future. 
  • The cost of the policy.

Updated 02/02/09

 

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