How do you purchase long-term care insurance, and what else should we be aware of?
If you're going to look into long-term care insurance for someone in your care, check with his current or former employer, life insurance provider, or insurance broker to see if she can add long-term care coverage to an existing policy. If it's for your parents, you may also be able to purchase a long-term care insurance policy through your own employer. If your parent is or was a local, state, or federal government employee or a veteran, he may be eligible for long-term care policies through a government-sponsored plan.
Insurance policies are legally enforceable contracts, but they don't always match the sales pitch of the agent or the hype in the brochure -- some policies require specific care providers or nursing homes, for example, so read the policy thoroughly. Before signing on, compare policies and prices from different companies, and consult with an elder law attorney or financial planner if you have any questions. Don't rely exclusively on the word of an insurance broker or agent. If you've already bought insurance but find it's not what you thought, the law provides for a 30-day cancellation period.
Remember that when it comes to older people and money, fraud is something to watch out for. If the sales pitch sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Always check the insurance company's rating and complaint history with your state insurance commissioner before signing any contracts or making any payments. You can also research the financial health of the insurance company through Moody's Investors Services or Standard & Poor's insurance ratings services.
For more information on what kind of long-term care insurance policy to look for, see A Buyer's Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance.
Ms. Miles....please call me. You need to read more, learn more about LTC insurance. If you are going to report to visitors to your website how to plan for the possible eventuality of needing care...you MUST become better informed. Shame on you for your flip comments about LTC insurance. Shame! I can tell you this...if you ever need care yourself.....your family will thank you for having a plan in place. Having money available to pay for quality care, choices, allowing your family to be care supervisors instead of care providers will endear you to them forever. Plan early, save, invest, insure....you just might live a long life.
Stephanie Miles is wrong!!!.....she wrote....needing long-term care from a paid provider. Long-term care insurance can pay for a nursing facility or home care, and many policies also cover assisted living, though no policy will pay the full cost of any of these. Say what?!? Of course it will it will pay for ALL LTC services if the daily/monthly benefits purchased are equal to or greater than the actual expense. C'mon, get the facts straight, will you? People usually pay premiums for 20 or 30 years before reaching an age when long-term care is likely. If, like most people, your parents never need or qualify for the policy's benefits, or they collect benefits for only a short time, those years of premiums will turn out to have been a wasted investment. For that reason, it's best to consider long-term care insurance as a "peace of mind" investment rather than as a sound financial one. Your whole website is devoted to caring for the elderly...people get old, they get sick, they need care, but suddenly it seems that, you may not need care. Don't worry about it...your family will take care of you. At what expense to the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of family members? Peace of mind! People don’t buy long-term care insurance because they don’t think that they will live a long life. People don’t buy long-term care insurance because they don’t think that they will ever need care for a period of time. People don’t buy long-term care insurance because they don’t think about the consequences that providing care would have on their children and spouse. People don’t buy long-term care insurance because they don’t think about what would pay for care assuming they ever needed it, which, of course, they don’t think they ever will. Until they do.