The Reason to Buy Long Term Care Insurance

Should I buy long term care insurance?

The average cost for one year in a nursing home is $40,000, but can be close to $100,000 in some big cities. Round-the-clock care at home can be just as expensive. Medicare insurance does not pay these bills beyond a short period of time after a hospital stay. Health insurance rarely pays any of the cost. Unless you have so little money that you will qualify for Medicaid, or so much money that you can pay the bills out of your own pocket, you should consider to buy long term care insurance. Clearly, to buy long term care insurance is a safe and sound investment.

Five key reasons to buy long term care insurance:

Preserve your assets for your family instead of spending the money on long term care.

The odds are one-in-three that a man over 65 will need long term care; for a woman over 65, the odds are one in two.

New rules make it difficult to qualify for Medicaid.

Premiums may be partially tax-deductible.

To buy long term care insurance is a wise decision.

Typical long term care insurance plan features:

The best long term care insurance plans buy you care in a nursing home, assisted living facility or at home. Benefits are typically expressed in daily amounts, with a lifetime maximum. Some long term care insurance plans pay half as much per day for at-home care as for nursing home care. Others pay the same amount, or have a "pool of benefits" that can be tapped as needed.

Eligibility triggers

Make sure you know when benefits kick in. The long term care insurance plan should state the various conditions that must be met.

The inability to perform two or three specific "activities of daily living" without help. These include bathing, dressing, eating, toileting and "transferring" or being able to move from place to place or between bed and chair.

Cognitive impairment. Most long term care insurance plans cover stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's disease, but other forms of mental incapacity may be excluded.

Medical necessity, or certification by a doctor that long term care is necessary.

Prior hospitalization. Some older long term care insurance plans require a hospital stay of at least three days before benefits can be paid. This requirement is very restrictive and should be avoided.

A benefit period that may range from two years to lifetime. You can keep premiums down by electing coverage for three to four years -- longer than the average nursing home stay -- instead of lifetime.

A waiting or "elimination" period. Premiums will be lower if you buy a long term care insurance plan with an initial waiting period in which you pay for the care yourself instead of electing first-day coverage.

Inflation protection is an important feature, especially if you are under 65 when you buy benefits that you may not use for 20 years or more. The best inflation provision compounds benefits at 5% a year.

Guaranteed renewable long term care insurance plans must be renewed by the insurance company, although premiums can go up if they are increased for an entire class of long term care insurance policyholders.

Waiver of premium, so that no further premiums are due once you start to receive benefits.

Third-party notification, so that a relative, friend or professional adviser will be notified if the long term care insurance policyholder forgets to pay a premium.

Optional features

Restoration of benefits. This feature ensures that maximum benefits are put back in place if you receive benefits for a time, then recover, and go for a specified period (typically six months) without benefits.

Nonforfeiture benefits return a portion of premiums or keep a lesser amount of insurance in force if you let the long term care insurance policy lapse. This provision, required by some states, adds to the cost of the long term care insurance plan that you buy.