Last week I talked about the long term health care coverage needs of diabetics, this week I would like to talk about the long term care needs of Lyme Disease victims. Lyme Disease is a bacterial infection caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. This biological agent is transmitted via a deer tick and it has to be delivered directly into your blood stream in order for you to contract the disease. While most people who are infected can be cured with a two to three week series of oral antibiotics or a two to four week series of IV antibiotics, other people develop a more serious version of this disease which requires long term treatment in order to control the progression of the disease.
If you happen to develop a case of Lyme Disease that is long lasting, then you are going to need IV drug therapy on a long term basis. This can cause several financial problems for you. First of all, if you contact this disease while you are young it can not only cost you a lot of money to treat over your lifetime, but it can also cause several other medical complications. Secondly, if you need the long term treatment, many insurance companies are going to insist that you prove that this course of treatment is necessary as the short term treatment is generally what they want you to use. Finally, if you need ongoing treatment for Lyme Disease then you may need a supplemental insurance program to cover your costs once you max out your other insurance policy coverage.
Having any chronic condition is going to necessitate chronic long term care. Medicare will cover a portion of your expenses, but there are limitations to what they will cover. To ensure that your long term care expenses will be covered by insurance you need to look into long term care insurance programs that provide ltc health insurance coverage. Next week I will be talking about the long term care needs of Alzheimer’s patients.