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 What is Long–term Care?

Long–term care refers to a wide range of medical, personal and social services. You may need this type of care if you have a prolonged illness or disability. This care may include help with daily activities, as well as home health care, adult daycare, nursing home care or care in a group living facility. Long–term care insurance is one way to pay for long–term care. It is designed to cover all or some of the services provided by long–term care.

When will benefits be available?

Long–term care policies have an elimination period, which is the number of days you must need nursing home care or home health care before your policy pays benefits. A shorter elimination period will mean you pay a higher premium. Elimination periods may range from 0 to 180 days. In addition, a long–term care policy does not guarantee coverage unless you satisfy certain requirements. For example, most policies require that you be unable to perform a given number of daily living activities, such as dressing, bathing and eating without assistance. Also, most policies have a benefit trigger for cognitive impairment. For example: as a policyholder you can only qualify for these benefits if you are unable to pass a test assessing your mental functioning.

How much in benefits will the policy pay?

The benefit amount usually is a daily benefit ranging from $50 to $250 per day. You may choose a benefit period that is a specific number of days, months or years. A maximum benefit period may range from one year to the remainder of your lifetime. It is important to ask the person selling the policy if the benefit amounts will increase with inflation and if that coverage increases your premium.

Are there exclusions?

Every policy has an exclusion section. Some states do not allow certain exclusions. Many long–term care policies exclude coverage for the following: 

• Mental and nervous disorders or diseases (except organic brain disorders)
• Alcoholism and drug addiction
• Illnesses caused by an act of war
• Treatment already paid for by the government
• Attempted suicide or self inflicted injury

Considerations before buying long–term care insurance

Whether you should buy long–term care insurance depends on your age and life expectancy, gender, family situation, health status, income and assets.

Age and Life Expectancy: The longer you live, the more likely it is that you will need long–term care. The younger you are when you buy the insurance, the lower your premiums will be.
Gender: Women are more likely to need long–term care because they have longer life expectancies and often outlive their husbands.
Family Situation: If you have a spouse or adult children, you may be more likely to receive care at home from family members. If family care is not available and you cannot care for yourself, paid care outside the home may be the only alternative. Different policies may cover different types of long–term care. It is important to buy a policy that will cover the type of care you expect to need and will be available in your area.
Health Status: If chronic or debilitating health conditions run in your family, you could be at greater risk than another person of the same age and gender.
Income and Assets: You may choose to buy a long–term care policy to protect assets you have accumulated. On the other hand, a long–term care policy is not a good choice if you have few assets or a limited income. Some experts recommend you spend no more than five percent of your income on a long–term care policy.

Do you qualify for Medicaid?

As an older adult, you may qualify for Medicaid, which pays almost half of the nation’s long–term care bills. To qualify for Medicaid, your monthly income must be less than the federal poverty level, and your assets cannot exceed certain limits. Medicaid will cover you only in Medicaid-approved nursing homes that offer the level of care you need. Under certain circumstances, Medicaid will pay for home health care.

Some states have long–term care insurance programs designed to help people with the financial impact of spending down to meet Medicaid eligibility standards. Under these “partnership” programs, when you buy a federally qualified partnership policy, you will receive partial protection against the normal Medicaid requirement to spend down your assets to become eligible. Check with your state insurance department or a counseling program to see if these policies are available in your state.

Key points to remember

• Long–term care insurance policies cover a wide range of medical, personal and social services.
• Understand what must happen for a policy to begin paying benefits.
• Understand the elimination period.
• Understand the daily benefits provided.
• Understand your coverage and exclusions.
• Match your need for long–term care with your need to protect assets and your ability to pay premiums.
• Understand how much your premium will be and how often it must be paid.
• Your premium may increase after your purchase.

The Web site for the National Clearinghouse for Long–term Care Information features a number of resources to help individuals start the planning process, including interactive tools such as a savings calculator, contact information for a range of programs and services, and real-life examples of how individuals have planned successfully for long–term care.

The Clearinghouse was authorized by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which mandates that they provide the following: objective information to help consumers decide whether to purchase long–term care insurance or to pursue other private market alternatives that pay for long–term care; information about states with long–term care insurance partnerships under the Medicaid program; and information about the availability and limitations of coverage for long–term care under the Medicaid program. 

For more information, contact the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The information presented in this Site is for general informational purposes, and should not be taken as legal advice. If you have a specific legal issue or problem, we recommends that you consult with an attorney.

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ABOUT InsureMe

What we do
InsureMe is a free service that helps people find the most competitive insurance rates available. Since 1993, we’ve helped millions of consumers save money, time and effort on their insurance.

When you fill out our short quote request form, we match you with insurance professionals from your area. With multiple agents vying for your business, you can pick the policy that fits your needs and budget. Comparison shopping has never been so easy.

We also do stuff that has nothing to do with insurance—like building orphanages in Ghana and homes in Mexico, as well as donating time and money to various service organizations in our backyard (Denver).

Who we are
InsureMe is the creation of visionary insurance agent Tim McTavish. Tim thought it should be easier for consumers to find the right insurance. With that idea, a 386 computer with a monochrome monitor, and a cramped condo in the Denver suburbs, InsureMe was born.

Fourteen years and an information revolution later, InsureMe has become an indispensable online resource for insurance shoppers. The company now employs 70 talented individuals and has since moved out of Tim’s condo. (So has Tim.) InsureMe’s mission has remained constant: Helping people find the right insurance.

Obtaining individual insurance quotes by calling insurance companies could be a time consuming and frustrating experience. The good news is that you can do this in less than two minutes by filling out just one intuitive easy & quick online questioner.

Get FREE Car Insurance Quotes from 2insure4less!

ABOUT 2Insure4Less

2Insure4Less.com is a FREE consumer referral service enabling insurance consumers nationwide to quickly find the best rates on various insurance products, using our unique competitive bidding process. Fill out one, quick and easy questioner, using our intuitive, user-friendly interface and let the auction begin. Our sophisticated quoting system will use the information you have provided to sort through hundreds of insurance companies to identify the three (3) companies with the most competitive results. Your contact information will be referred to up to three agents in your state who represent companies with the best preliminary estimates.

We are not an insurance company or agency. We do not provide insurance quotes to the consumers, nor do we personally sell insurance nationwide. Our unique, patented automated rating engine is designed to provide you with preliminary estimates from thousands of insurance companies doing business in the United States . The actual insurance quotations will be provided to you by the insurance professionals, licensed in your state, who are members of our referral network and who are authorized by the insurance companies to quote and sell you insurance.

We are keenly aware of the identity theft, junk mail and other risk exposures and would like to assure you that your information is safe. We use secure server latest encryption technology to protect your information and we will not share your personal information to any outside party, except to those three agents with the best rates possible, who are also obligated to abide by our “Privacy Policy”.