Control and Long Term Care

It's better to insure a day early than a day late. Once you need care, whether you are 20 or 80, it's too late to apply for insurance and you're on your own.

The average time in nursing care per person is 2.4 years or 875 days @ $209 a day is $182,875. 9% of claims are expected to go over 5 years (1825x$209=$381,425). Maybe you'll only need a few weeks of care. Do you feel lucky?

Many people don't yet know that only a few weeks of medically necessary nor custodial care is covered by health insurance and Medicare. Other than paying yourself (retirement income/savings) your other choice is to apply for state aid (Medicaid-welfare health care) and welfare usually doesn't cover home or assisted living care.

Some people ask "what if I pay but never use it?" is answered with the question, "what insurance do you have that you DO want to use?" The important question to ask is "if I needed a few years of long term care what would be the consequences to myself and to those I care about?" -- If those consequences don't matter, you can stop reading here.

The main reason people buy long term care insurance is to maintain control. Control over being a burden on their families and friends, control over where they receive care, control over the quality of care they receive, and control over the cost of their care.

The two main factors that you cannot control that determine the cost of your policy are your age and your health.

You are in control of when you insure so you are in some control of how much your policy will cost.

If you've had a birthday since your last quote you will be paying more today, depending on your age and benefits it could be $100 a year or $1000 a year.

If you've had a change of health you will be paying more and if the change of health is serious enough you may be uninsurable and will have to pay for the entire cost of care.

If you would have qualified for Preferred Health previously but since have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, type II diabetes, or any number of diagnoses, or maybe you are no longer at the preferred weight -- you will have lost preferred status and will have to pay more for your policy.

You are not in control of when, where, or why you will need long term care but you are in control of insuring for long term care or paying yourself.

Everyone has their time frame for considering this type of insurance. Every day more and more people like yourself are finding the Internet not only useful for gathering information but also an easy and less-stressful way to purchasing insurance.

If you decide to apply for long term care insurance most people find it more convenient these days to use the mail rather than face-to-face with an agent. Most companies provide assistance with the forms which takes about 20 minutes to fill out.

Once you send in your application they don't know yet if they will insure you so you wait for underwriting approval which takes 3-5 weeks. If approved you are sent the policy with a 30 day period to make changes or cancel at no cost (a state law). In effect you have a couple of months to think about it. Applying now locks in your age and most importantly locks in your health.

It's your choice today to self-insure (pay yourself) or to transfer the risk to an insurance company like you have done with your home, car, and health... you may not have those choices tomorrow.