Long-term care insurance (LTC) is not only unique, but also quite complicated. These policies are designed to cover the typical costs of care that go along with the aging process.
Few people want to think about being older, though preparing in advance can save you and your family from a great deal of trouble down the road. The average cost of nursing home care runs just over $9,000 per month. While you can secure long-term care insurance, there are some things that may impact just how much you’ll pay for it.
What Will Change the Cost of Long Term Care?
With high costs for nursing home care, it’s important to secure a long-term care policy. It can protect your financial assets, keeping them from being spent on your care. However, before you purchase insurance or make any changes to an existing policy, you must know what can affect how much you will pay for it.
1. Age
Depending on how old you are when you buy your long-term care insurance policy, this can affect the cost. It’s always better to buy it earlier rather than later, however, rushing this decision could also be costly.
While it is true your rate may increase anywhere from three to five percent every year you wait it out, don’t be pushed into a decision without thinking things through. You should take your time to research all your options.
Since each policy must conform to state laws and regulations, they can be confusing to understand. It’s a good idea to work with a long-term care insurance attorney who can demystify the process and make it easier to understand. In this way, you can avoid some of the potholes that come up like insurance denials, which would be devastating for you and your family’s physical and financial well-being.
2. State of Health
Ideally, the best time to purchase long-term care insurance is when you’re still healthy. This will lock in lower rates, however, these rates will increase if you develop any health conditions. They may also rise if you start taking more prescription medications.
With an experienced long-term care insurance attorney, you’ll have someone in your corner to ensure you have a policy that will take proper care of you as you age.
3. Coverage
Generally, long-term care insurance policies include an array of benefits. Some of them may be a waiver of premium, equipment and home modifications, alternate care, and homemaker and chore service- to name a few. You can also add additional riders to the policy.
The additional riders could include things like survivorship benefit, inflation protection, restoration of benefits, waiver of home health care elimination period, nonforfeiture benefit, or return of premium. When you add riders to the LTC, this can increase the total cost from 5% to up to 75%.
Understanding riders and the coverages they provide can be even more confusing than the original long-term insurance policy itself. You will want to discuss these options with someone who has clear comprehension of those technical terms to avoid making a costly mistake.
Some people buy riders they don’t need while others think they’re just another expense. Both of these assumptions could impact your financial reserves as well as the level of care you’ll receive.
Long-term care insurance should give you peace of mind. In order for it to do what it is intended to do, you must understand your policy. Speak with a long term care insurance claims attorney that has extensive experience in practicing law with a focus on long-term care insurance to ensure you or your loved ones get the care they need. A good lawyer in this niche will also provide a free initial consultation to help you get that support to make the best decision for long-term care today.
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