The fist thing to consider before buying long term care insurance is whether or not coverage is a good idea for you. If your assets are very limited, you may qualify for long term care, or LTC, under Medicaid. Conversely, if your assets are considerable, t may make more sense to save money on your own to cover the costs of any potential LTC. However, if you want to protect your assets, or you have a medical condition that makes it very likely you will need in-home nursing, assisted-living or a nursing home, then you may want to seriously consider taking out a policy.
Once you're committed to buying long term care insurance, you will want to find a reliable company that will meet your needs. There are a few different ways to determine what you can expect. Because you're buying insurance that you may not use for decades, you want to make sure your insurer will be around then. Larger, established companies tend to be more stable, though they often have higher premiums. If you're considering a smaller company, purchasing a financial stability report from a rating agency can give you an idea of how stable that company really is.
Another way to assess a potential company is to find out about current customer satisfaction. If you know someone who is currently receiving benefits, talk to them and see how satisfied they are with their company. If you don't know anyone personally, then local nursing hoes may have an administrator who can give you an idea about which companies people are happiest with.
The next step in buying long term care insurance is to estimate how much coverage you will likely need. To do so, you will want to find out the current average costs for both in-home and nursing home care in your area. You will then want to adjust for inflation, about 5% per year, to estimate what your costs will likely be. This will help you pick the right amount of coverage.
The other major piece of the long term care insurance puzzle is the elimination period, which is the waiting period before your benefits kick in. In general, the shorter the elimination period, the higher the premium. However, the daily costs for care may be high enough to justify higher premiums. If care costs $400 per day for example, then even a 30-day increase in the elimination period will cost you $12,000.
When buying long term care insurance, the number of variables may seem high, but calculating the amount of money you may require for care will help with many of the big decisions. Getting the right policy, from the right company means that buying long term care insurance won't be a decision you'll regret. And you can always obtain a free long term care insurance quote to get you started at long term care review.
