How Long Term Care Costs Can Effect Your Retirement
Introduction
Long term care insurance delivers the aid of skilled professionals to better care for senior citizens with health ailments. Long term care is available in all settings from hospitals, adult day care, respite care, nursing homes, and assisted living. The cost of long term care in the short run is expensive, as most policy holders are already paying premiums prior to actually needing care. However, long term care insurance coverage works itself out in the long run because it comprehensively covers the skyrocketing costs of long term care.
Long Term Care Insurance
When considering long term care insurance, one of the first questions you should ask yourself is whether or not you want to pay premiums now while still working or pay upwards of $75,000 a year while you’re not working to self insure? Do the math. According to the Health Insurance Administration of America, the average yearly long term care insurance premium for a person fifty years of age was $1,087 with inflation protection and nonforfeiture benefits included. Assuming that person retires at age 67 and is in need of long term care by the age of 75. In that 25 year period, they will have paid $27,175 for their long term care policy. While it seems like a sizeable investment, try comparing it to three years in a nursing home at $75,000 per year.
Benefit Triggers of Long term care insurance
Due to the customizable nature of long term care insurance plans, each individual policy may or may not have different benefit triggers. But no matter the policy, issues with activities of daily living (ADL’s) and cognitive impairments are the most significant triggers. ADL’s are daily tasks that one used to be able to do on their own but cannot successfully pursue on their own. There are six common ADL’s: bathing, eatinf dressing, toileting, continence and transferring. Once an individual is unable to do two of these six, benefits kick in. Cognitive impairments, on the other hand, are a trigger when an individual cannot pass certain cognitive function examinations by a physician. Cognitive impairments as a long term care trigger are most often associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Getting the Benefits
With a long term care insurance policy, benefits are paid in different ways depending on the individual. The first way is the expense incurred method. With the expense incurred method, the insurance company decides your eligibility for benefits and your claims. For a set dollar amount, the indemnity payment method is the best route of action. The third method, the disability method, only requires the policy holder to meet benefit eligibility criteria.
Conclusion
Long term care becomes more of a requirement than an option as each year passes and more and more people leave the work place. Funding for long term care is a process, which is different for each policy holder. When thinking about long term care, remember it is long term not a quick way to save on costs. For this sake, it is best to acquire long term care insurance services prior to actually needing them.
At at www.ltcfp.com it is easy to find all the Facts About Long Term Care
Getting the facts about long term care is easy at http://www.ltcfp.com/
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Category: Finances
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