Choosing the Long-term Care Insurance Company That’s Right for You
Becoming familiar with the foundational features and options of a good long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy requires taking enough time to educate yourself before making your final decision. This will help ensure that you get the policy that will best fit your particular needs. The next step is to find the insurance provider that will suit you best. Since there are a number of LTCI carriers to choose from, here are a few suggestions for selecting a company that is worthy of your trust in the many years and also offers a quality product.
Among the companies that offer LTCI, there are a few that have an outstanding reputation. What I mean is that these companies have already distinguished themselves over a long period of time as financially solid, rate-stable carriers with an excellent customer service record. Unfortunately, we see so many stories in the media these days of other LTCI companies whose record in these areas is being seriously challenged. It’s been reported that some have appeared to excessively deny claims for the sole purpose of making a profit. Others have had to request hefty premium increases due to a much higher number of claims than they had projected. While these stories may hold some truth, what we don’t hear is the good stuff: LTCI companies that really adhere to their claims of the customer being #1.
The June 18, 2007 issue of Newsweek magazine recommended the following four companies as being major carriers that can be worthy of your consideration: Genworth, John Hancock, MetLife, and Allianz Life. Of course, that does not mean that there aren’t other fine companies represented in the LTCI field, but the four carriers identified by Newsweek are among the oldest and financially strongest in the industry. They also have extremely favorable records of customer satisfaction.
Genworth, John Hancock, MetLife and Allianz Life are all fine choices if you are in excellent health. However, if you have health issues that are not serious enough to render you uninsurable, but will most likely disqualify you for ” preferred ” rates, then the company you have selected can have a significant impact on your premium. The reason for this is that each company has its own underwriting procedures that it uses for rating policyholders. These procedures can be different from one company to the next. For instance, one company will not issue a ” preferred ” rating to someone who uses even a single blood pressure medication while others will allow the use of up to four of these medications and still award the highest rate classification for long term care
If you have more serious health conditions, the difference in the way individual carriers treat those issues can even be more serious. In other words, some health conditions that one carrier may decide to accept may be cause for rejection by another provider. Here is where having the assistance of a knowledgeable, experienced agent who can choose from several top companies in the LTCI field, can be a real asset in finding the company that is not only trustworthy and reliable, but also best fits your particular needs and home health care history.
Top Wrinkle Creams, What You Need to Know
Aging is a natural process, and finally, we will grow old. This isn’t an escapable event, nor is it really bad. Every year that goes by is another year of knowledge and happiness. This means you are closer to the dreams you were not ready to achieve before. Anti aging cream offers you a youthful glowing skin
An undeniable factor is, aging also involves looking totally different from how you did before. It is not the growing older, but rather, the looking older that bothers and worries so many girls out there, and so, it is not surprise that women are spending millions of greenbacks in total for anti wrinkle creams.
The ads that we see in TV have the dazzling one one hundred pc guarantee to all their potential buyers, an idea that is simply superb. The facts actually are totally different. If each and every cream out there is a hundred p.c effective, even those with harmful ingredients that may cause harm to our skin, then the standard should have been two hundred. Best wrinkle cream in the market depends on the skin type.
If you actually desire what’s best for your skin, you should not speed up the method of choosing. You have to go through the meticulous process of checking labels and researching on what they can do to your skin. Ingredients like alcohol, petroleum, parabens, artificial fragrances and so on are to be avoided at all costs. They are harmful to your skin, and produce short term or long term damages.
What you’ve got to do is search for ingredients like Functional Keratin, Coenzyme Q10, Natural Vitamin E, Phytessence Wakame, Grape seed oil, Manuka Honey, Jobjoba oil, Avocado extract, Olive oil etc. These are natural ingredients in the best eye creams that are proved to have fabulous effects for the skin, smoothening out the wrinkles and giving your skin its original glow. These natural oils like Avocado oil, Olive oil, Jobjoba oil, Babassu oil, and Grape seed oil are moisturizers that will keep your skin from those blemishes due to dryness.Use anti wrinkle cream to erase wrinkles.
If you really want your skin to be in its best, select the best wrinkle cream which has only the best ingredients.
LTCI Basics: Choosing the Best Elimination Period for you
In a long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy, the elimination period is often referred to as the policy deductible. In many ways it is similar to the deductible used in major medical insurance policies. One significant difference is this: rather than a certain dollar amount that you will initially pay for your own care expenses, there is a specified number of days for which you will be responsible for your own homecare.
What are My Options?
These days very few carriers offer a zero-day elimination period. The most common choices are 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days, however, these periods can differ from one carrier to another carrier. The choice of 180 or 365 days is most often made by those who have significant assets of their own. Selecting a much longer period can help them keep the expenses of LTCI very low. Even if one chooses a 90-day elimination period, the amount of funds put at risk is miniscule when compared to the asset protection afforded by the policy;s total pool of benefits.
What is a Reasonable Choice for an Elimination Period?
There are some popular financial authors who recommend setting it as low as possible, perhaps even at zero. It’s true that the shorter the elimination period, then the less likely it will be for you to pay out when the time comes for you to recieve care. On the other hand, low elimination periods can have a dramatic effect on the premiums that you pay throughout the life of the policy. Usually some form of compromise is necessary for the sake of affordability. In making a decision about the elimination period, many policyholders keep in mind that insurance is often used as a way to avoid suffering catastrophic financial losses rather than insuring against every possible expense. Accepting a small portion of the risk involved can be an economical and reasonable choice for most people.
The Smartest Thing You Can Do
Please keep in mind that what is right for most people might not be right for you. In deciding on the best elimination period for your particular situation, it is prudent to consider what the cost would be for the most expensive assisted care that you may have to receive, which is most often facility care. Once you have a good idea of the daily costs for facility care in your area, then you multiply the costs by various elimination period choices and determine the amount that you feel is affordable. When you decide on the elimination period that best fits your situation, earmark those funds for your care, and allow them to grow so that they keeps pace with inflation, at the very least. Using a little financial common sense goes a long way toward making a wise decision about the LTCI elimination period.
LTCI Explained
Private insurance companies sell LTCI policies to offset the costs of long-term care. LTCI, like all insurance policies, requires premiums to help recipients avoid paying large sums later on in the event of an illness or a catastrophic event. Premiums are based on the individual’s age at the time of purchase and are usually locked in for the life of the policy. LTCI covers the following, depending on the policy you choose:
Care in a skilled nursing facility
Care in an assisted living facility
Buying a LTCI policy allows the policyholder to choose from many options, such as the amount of the daily benefit, the number of years the policy will pay benefits, and, once the applicant qualifies for a policy, the number of days or months before the policy will begin paying benefits. It is imperative to evaluate policies with scrutiny in order to see which one offers the benefits that you are looking for with a premium that fits your budget. Policies differ in their benefits, contract conditions, deductibles and premiums.
It is also a matter of great importance to take into account the rising expense of home care. Be sure the LTCI policy gives inflation protection for benefits to increase as health care costs continue to rise. Policies are generally labeled according to the place in which benefits are paid. Remember that homecare only policies only pay for care at home and in an adult day care or adult day health care facilities. Make sure the policy includes both types of day care. Meanwhile, facility only policies pay for care in a skilled nursing facility and in an assisted living facility. Comprehensive policies pay for care in a skilled nursing facility, assisted living facility, adult day care or adult day health care facility, and at home. Since LTCI claims are often paid many years after the purchase of the policy, it is imperative to check the following: Financial strength of the company. The industry’s major rating services are A.M. Best , Duff and Phelps, Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Weiss Ratings . Reputation and claims-paying history of the company.
You can contact the State Insurance Department for more information on specific private insurance companies. Check here for more listings information for each of the state’s insurance information. Applicant must be healthy at the time of application Each insurance company has individual requirements and/or limitations Not sure when is the right time to buy an LTCI policy? Or how to assess what you will need from a policy? Visit our Expert Column on Financing Long Term Care to find out more.
Your Long-Term Care Insurance Plan: How to Find an Affordable Policy without Sacrificing Coverage
One very important ingredient in any successful long-term care insurance plan is to have an affordable policy without sacrificing good coverage. If you receive quotes from several highly rated insurers and yet found out that these premiums are still too much to handle, there is no need to panic and assume that long term care insurance costs too much. You may be able to adjust the benefit amounts of the original quotes to place the premiums more in line with your expectations, thus ensuring an affordable policy.
Know the Costs of Long-term Care Where You Live
One of the many ways to lower premium costs is to make sure that you know what the actual costs of care are in your area. There are many statistics used when talking about long-term care costs and these are always based on national averages. The actual cost of home care, nursing homes and assisted living facilities in your particular area may be much lower. You can find out about local long-term care costs by simply downloading the latest Genworth Cost of Care Guide or by calling a few local home care agencies and long-term care facilities to ask for comparison rates.
Adjust Your Benefit Period
Another way to lower long-term care insurance premiums is to use a shorter benefit period. Many consumers feel that non-limited benefits are necessary for good coverage. A recent study published by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance in their 2009 Sourcebook revealed that only eight percent of those who buy a three-year benefit period exhaust the policy and still need care. Only a little over one percent of those with a five-year benefit period will see their claims closed due to policy exhaustion. This can only mean that lowering the benefit period is actually a practical way to lower insurance costs without sacrificing vital coverage.
Reexamine the Elimination Period
One way to bring down long-term care insurance premiums is to increase the elimination period (the number of days after your care begins that precedes the insurance company’s first payment of claims).
Take note that almost 90% of individual continuous care insurance policies use an elimination period between ninety and one hundred days according to the same 2009 Sourcebook referenced above. If your initial quotes used a thirty-day or sixty-day elimination period, you may have the ability to significantly lower the premiums by choosing a ninety-day elimination period instead. There are other ways that an experienced long-term care specialist can help make this kind of insurance which is affordable for you. If you ask for suggestions on lowering your premiums, the specialist will be happy to work with you to craft a long-term care insurance policy that is effective and affordable.
Senior Care Reimbursement Overview
Planning for long term care is complicated. Each person’s needs are unique, so therfore, the cost of long term care differs greatly. Some social and physical assistance is available at a low cost or for free, while very expensive nursing home or home health facilities can cost upwards of $200 per day. There are lots of different ways to finance long-term care. You may need to use a combination of payment sources, which may include long-term insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or other programs, in addition to your own resources.
It is essential to consult a professional such as an elder law attorney, financial planner or an accountant when planning for long-term care, this person should be well versed in estate planning, public programs like Medicaid, and the issues and needs of older persons. These long term care professionals often work as a team. Gilbert Guide recommends getting a second opinion before making any final decision on financial matters. Check out our Learning Centers and Expert Columns where our long-term care assistants will point you in the right direction, raising awareness of the issues you need to know about when planning for your future.
Here are many of the options available to reimburse for senior care: (Click on the links below to see what else is covered outside of long-term care.) For Medicare, which is for continuous care, covers some skilled nursing care either in a nursing home or in the home along with hospice care. Medicaid, which is the partially federally funded yet state-operated program provides medical care for some small income people and families with limited resources. Medicaid usually covers nursing home care, however for some certain states, funding is available for assisted living, homecare or home health care.
For Medigap, whose policies are available to Medicare, A & B enrollees who are not Medicaid recipients have the option to sign up for and covers some nursing home care. Managed Care (HMO) provide enhanced services for nursing home care above Medicare’s basic offering along with additional medical assistance outside of long-term care. Long-term Care Insurance (LTCI) actually covers everything, from non-medical homecare to nursing care; however, it depends on the type of policy you purchased. Veterans Benefits will cover adult day health care, home health care, respite care and hospice care.
A Sneaky Secret About Long-Term Care Insurance Premiums
Affordability is a key ingredient in any successful long-term care plan. Which is why the premium cost is often the most important elements to consumers who are considering the purchase of LTCI. One of the most frequently asked question I hear is: ” Will my premiums ever increase? ” The answer is this: there are a couple of scenarios in which LTCI premiums could increase. I will try to expound one in this article and follow up with the second in a future article. The first scenario involves a choice the policyholder makes regarding inflation protection. Most LTCI policies have automatic inflation protection built into the policy design from the beginning; in such cases the premium is designed to stay level for the life of the policyholder. The benefits increase each year, but the long term care insurance premium remains the same.
Inflation Protection: What You Need to Know
There are some insurance carriers that offer a different kind of inflation in which the policyholder starts out with no automatic inflation protection instead, benefit increases would be offered every three years or so. These increases can actually be declined or accepted by the policyholder. This means that your premium would increase every three years for the rest of your life or until you start receiving policy benefits. The problem with this inflation protection choice is that the policyholder is three years older when each offer of extra benefits is made. The expense of the added benefits is based on the later age, not on the age of the policyholder at the inception of the policy. This can result in a significant increase in premiums in later years. Some consumers simply drop these policies after a while, as they just can’t afford to continue paying long term care insurance premiums that are so much higher than the cost of the original premium.
Long-term Effects of Premium Increases
Group policies often offer this kind of inflation protection to stay competitive with individual LTCI policies. Before they start finalizing their decision, it is very important for consumers to understand the long-term effects that these premium increases can have. Unfortunately, there are lots of policyholders who did not understand the ramifications of this kind of inflation protection when they purchased their policy. SOmetimes, they see themselves locked into a policy that is constantly increasing in price and have few options for switching to a more affordable LTCI product due to their age and/or home health care circumstances. It is true that automatic inflation protection increases that are built into the premium cost from the inception of the policy will initially be more expensive than a periodic increase offer. But in my opinion, in most circumstances, it is better to lock in your inflation protection costs at an early age, and know that your premiums will remain stable, than take the chance on an ever-increasing premium that may eventually be too much to afford.
No Long-Term Care Insurance? Read This!
There are so many reasons why people do not like buying long term care insurance. Some of those reasons may be based on very sound decisions. For example, if you have made a good research into the cost of premiums from several of the financially sound major carriers and have found that the cost is more than you can reasonably bear, then long-term care insurance is not for you. But if you are like most people, the real reason that you are hesitant to prepare for possible future long-term care costs actually has very little to do with reasoning or sound decisions. Your hesitation is most likely based on feelings and emotions. A lot of people continue to live in a state of denial about their possible need for long-term care services in the future.
This is always because they have been very healthy; therefore, they find it hard to see themselves in a state where they may need assistance with activities of daily living. Or maybe their parents died all of a sudden or within a short period of time, so they figure that most likely, the same will happen to them. Or perhaps the denial is so strong that very little thought has gone into the matter at all. Should that be the case, this subject is probably so depressing to most of these people to which they have consciously selected to delay any decision about purchasing long-term care insurance until later. And that time will never come. Why? None of these thought processes are based on fact. We all know that good health can change overnight. In fact, almost everyone knows someone whose health situation changed dramatically within a very short period of time.
This risk obviously increases with age, so the chances of it happening to any individual, including you and me, are very real. Due to the advances in medical science in recent years, using your parent’s health history as a guide for your own does not work. It is obvious that more people are living longer and often need more care in the last years of life. Besides, having a long term care insurance is extremely expensive. If you are among those who refuse to even think about their future health care facilities, ask yourself this: who will be left to make this decision for you? Refusing to think about the subject does not make the possibility of needing long-term care any less real. It simply defers the decision to those you love the most.
They will often have to make decisions about your care at the last minute, when the choices are extremely limited, unpleasant and expensive. Our families will be well served if we all decide now to take responsibility for our own future health care needs and make sound decisions based on facts instead of unreasonable emotions.
Long-term Care Insurance Explained: What It Is, Types of LTCI Policies & What to Consider
For long-term care, health insurance is vital, and LTCI (or Long-Term Care Insurance) can be an effective tool for protecting your estate and assets from the high costs of senior care. The best long-term care insurance should cover a lot of care solutions and even if you don’t think you need it now, it’s best to purchase LTCI early on. Though the average nursing homes length of stay is significantly higher than most people believe, 2.4 years according to a report conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, less than 20% of long-term care is home care, nursing home care, home health care, adult day care, assisted living facility care and others consitute the overwhelming majority of senior care services. Generally, the people who are in need of care are the ones responsible for paying the costs. Long Term Care is usually not covered by your personal health insurance plan or by the policy you may currently have from a present or previous employer. Medicare usually pays for only a small percentage of skilled nursing costs, while Medicaid provides health care coverage to Americans with lower incomes and can pay almost half of all nursing home costs.
Though it is likely that you will need long-term care in the future, no one can predict the kind of care that may be needed or what are the exact costs involved. With Long-Term Care Insurance, you can plan and budget for a known and quantifiable premium for a policy that can protect you from potentially large out-of-pocket expenses. It can be beneficial to learn about the different types of long-term care health insurance policies available to you in order to match the most appropriate policy to suit your needs.
Types of Long-Term Care Health Insurance Policies: The most common policy type is indemnity which pays a maximum fixed benefit. A benefit amount is selected at the time the policy is issued and actual expenses, up until a fixed predetermined dollar amount, are reimbursed as they are incurred. Integrated policies that pool benefits are becoming more popular today. The provisions allow for a total dollar amount that may be used for various long-term care services with expense limits on a daily, whether monthly or weekly basics.
Due to rapidly increasing long-term care costs, most long-term care health insurance policies offer inflation adjustments to help offset high anticipated future costs. Long-Term Care Insurance policies often take effect when an individual is unable to perform activities of daily living or becomes cognitively impaired from dementia or related illnesses. Home care services such as skilled and unskilled nursing care, physical therapy and home health aide support provided by licensed agencies are generally covered as are intermediate, custodial and skilled care services provided in licensed nursing facilities. It should be noted that if any conditions are preexisting, all benefits are denied when care is needed within six months of the policy’s issue date for that condition.
What to Consider When Selecting the Best Long-Term Care Insurance: Nowadays, there are now over 100 LTCI products. Before selecting a long-term care health insurance provider and policy, Always remember to consider the following: Verify that the insurance agent is licensed to sell long-term care health insurance in your state and review ratings to ensure that the insurance provider is financially secure since you will likely need the policy for years to come. Also, remember to determine exactly which services are covered, e.g., skilled nursing home care, unskilled nursing facility care, home health care, adult day care, etc. in order to select the best when it comes to long term care insurance policy. Examine the length of time benefits are provided for the various types of services covered; look for maximum lifetime benefit amounts.
Remember to identify the length of time before pre-existing conditions are covered. Find out how long you must wait before benefits begin for services. Inquire regarding coverage of Alzheimer’s and other related illnesses, the best long-term care insurance provider should allow for this. Review any premium provision waivers. Analyze cost requirements to ensure your ability to make policy payments during retirement years. As with all complex and important decisions, you can talk to relatives and friends to get recommendations on the best long-term care insurance and share experiences regarding various policies, review all paperwork, with the consultation of your attorney if needed, to ensure that you understand policy provisions and discuss economic implications with your financial advisor.
An explanation of home care
It is one of those facts of life. We all get old. One thing we can’t do is stop time.We go from our early years of our youth and feeling invincible and on top of the world and able to do anything. To the stage in life when our body starts to break down.
Unfortunately, it is during that time we may have to consider home health care. So I would like to offer some tips from running my own home health care San Diego company.
First off, what is senior home health care. It is that time when a person may not be able to take care of themselves completely.
This is not referring to a person who needs a nursing home. No this person is a person who still can reasonably take care of themselves but not in everything.
What kind of things am I talking about. Well from running my own home health care La Jolla company, I have seen people needing help in things like grooming.Or maybe even taking baths.Or it might be even some daily activities of living.Could be the need to have meals prepared.Including their laundry.All of these things as well as a few others are things that might have to be taken care of by someone else when they get older.
Those mentioned are pretty common occurences, but there will be times when some things like health need to be taken care of.For instance it includes things like having to remember to take medications. Or maybe having to go to doctor’s appointments. These things are a little more important and definitely need to be taken care of.
Well with a quality senior home care San Diego company, all those needs can be taken care. A good home care agency will be able to provide you with quality caregivers.
They can be an in home provider or someone that comes daily. It all has to do with what you are looking for in your home care.
With the finding of a quality home care agency it can be a source of peace for the one that is in need of care.This type of service gives them the freedom to be able to stay at home. Stay in a comfortable environment with familiar surroundings.More importantly they will be able to stay reasonably close to all their family and friends.
If you are getting up there in age, finding a good quality home health caregiver might be just what you need in that time of your life.