Understanding Long Term Care Insurance
Introduction
Due to the sky-rocketing costs of home and/or private nursing care or for assisted living care, long-term care insurance (LTCI) is becoming more and more common.
What is It?
Not just for elderly folks, good long term care insurance safeguards the policyholder by providing protection from the various expenses that are associated with various chronic conditions, particularly for those who can no longer take care of themselves due to a disability or age-related infirmity. For the most part, an individual is considered to be eligible for long-term care if they are unable to perform certain Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), which are typical day-to-day living tasks, such as basic hygiene, undertaking necessary bodily functions, making meals, dressing, etc.
Who Can Benefit?
Long-term care can be exorbitantly expensive and one never knows when it might be needed. So, it makes sense that people are encouraged, (if they qualify), to attempt to obtain this type of insurance policy protection. Although Medicaid can often be helpful in paying for a portion of long-term care, one can easily use up one’s savings prior to being eligible for it. Since Medicare and Medicare supplementary programs will not provide protection for most long-term care expenses, one is well served in buying a long term insurance policy to help paying for such costs. One may apply for LTCI only if one or more of following conditions are met:
• The potential policyholder is between the forty and eighty years of age.
• He or she has assets to protect
• The potential policyholder can pay for the coverage premiums
• One cannot receive other coverage due to his or her health
How does the insurance policy work?
Like all insurance, one is obligated to pay premiums to have the policy be in effect. After a claim is made on the policy, benefits will be dispersed in a certain amount per day for a certain period for the kind of care outlined in the plan’s details. Most coverage benefits will be triggered as a result of a physical or mental impairment striking the policyholder. A person’s lack of ability to perform the aforementioned ADLs is how most often an insurer determines when the policy can release its benefits to the policyholder.