When consumers buy most other types of insurance
they can readily determine how much coverage they need. They
can also usually afford to buy full protection. Long
term care insurance is different for several reasons:
Choice
-- there are more features available with long term care
insurance that complicate the up front policy design
and
affect the cost.
Cost
-- long term care insurance can seem expensive; it becomes
progressively more expensive as one gets older; and, for
seniors, premiums are often payable after earned
income has stopped.
Personal
impact -- unlike most other insurances, the quality
of your day-to-day lifestyle may be directly impacted
by the long term care insurance policy choices that you
make.
For
example, applicants can choose to receive long term
care in their own home rather than in a nursing facility.
Determining what long term care insurance policy is best for you
is a series of tradeoffs in order to design a policy that best fits
your needs.
We suggest these steps:
1.
Determine how much long term care insurance you can afford
to pay each year.
2.
Select a reputable company that sells long term care insurance
in your state.
3. Understand the policy options
Long
term care insurance choices are like a menu which will
include selections regarding the amount of the benefit,
waiting period before the benefits begin, in-home
assistance, inflation protection, tax-qualification, etc.
4. Next, obtain a new revised quote with
just the benefits you can afford.
You
may feel better getting quotes from competitors for
comparison. Be aware that long term care insurance price
quotes should be quite similar among reputable insurance
companies. If the prices are much different, either
(a) some policy feature is missing from the lowest priced
policy, (b) one company is substandard and therefore is
not as financially reliable, or (c) you are getting low-balled
with rates that will have to rise significantly someday.
5. Choose one company.
Apply now while you are still healthy enough to receive coverage. You
may want to view the pre-existing
conditions for long term care. |
