Does it really matter when you buy long term insurance coverage? The short answer is yes if you want to be able to afford it. That doesn’t even take into account the ability (or lack there of) to qualify for the coverage in the first place. Let’s take a look at the age effect on your long term care insurance options.

First, let’s talk about underwriting and the mysterious world of LTC qualification. It goes without saying that many health issues that might be an issue in terms of qualifying for long term care are directly tied to age. To some extent, long term care is a function of age outside the less likely early-age, catastrophic injury or illness since it primarily deals with costs resulting from a general deterioration in day to day functioning. Unfortunately, for most of us, this is just a matter of some attained age (barring amazing advances in medical technology). Many diseases that impact LTC qualification have a direct correlation with age such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia. Further more, many injuries or illnesses that can result in impaired ability become more likely as we get older such as heart disease, heart attack, or strokes. If you start to exhibit signs for one of these issues, then it’s probably too late to apply for long term care. That’s only part of the equation for applying at can early age. Let’s talk about cost!

Long term care insurance in more in line with life insurance than health insurance when it comes to the age effect on pricing. With health insurance, your cost of coverage goes up as you get older. We’re all too familiar with this effect. LTC insurance is different. It’s based on the age when you originally purchased the coverage. Barring rate increase applied to the everyone by a specific carrier, your rate will not change during the life of the policy. This intuitively points towards purchasing a Long Term Care policy earlier rather than later to lock in the best rate. Is there an ideal time (or age) to buy and is there an age where it probably doesn’t make sense? You’ll typically see more significant increases in rates with each year past age 55. This means that the difference in annual cost for a 45 year old an 55 year old is not nearly as much as that between a 55 year old and 65 year old. With our instant quote capabilities, you can quickly see the difference in cost by different ages when you receive your quote. Keep in mind that you need to multiply this annual difference in cost over the expected life of the policy. It’s best to multiply the number of years from your current age to age 85 by the annual difference in cost for a true representation of the cost benefits to applying earlier. This cumulative affect of the savings can have a significant impact on the total cost.

Now for a combination of both qualifying for long term care insurance and the early age effect, we’re likely to get the best rate possible if we’re in good health and that’s typically a function of age. Let’s say we’re perfectly healthy right now at 50. 3-5 years from now, what if we’re diagnosed with high blood pressure or diabetes, both of which are very common…especially as we get older. If I wait a few more years, my get a higher rate solely based on these health issues (assuming I qualify for coverage at all).

The net take-away is this. We know the coverage itself makes sense based on the 1 out of 2 chance that we’ll have an LTC event in our life and the significant cost associated with LTC care. Why not lock it the desired coverage at a younger age and lower rate given the chance?

Author Bio: Dennis Jarvis is a licensed Long Term Care insurance broker with extensive knowledge of the LTC plan market. Quote Long Term Care Insurance

Category: Finances
Keywords: long term care insurance,long term care quote,age and long term care