Long term care insurance, also known as LTC, can be useful for a range of people. This is a form of insurance that is required by those who need round-the-clock care and continued assistance.
What is LTC?
Long term care insurance used to be reserved for those who were in a nursing home, as this was a sure-fire way of determining whether someone required daily assistance.
Thankfully, nowadays, LTC is available to a range of people for various forms of care and assistance. While this kind of insurance can still be purchased for those living in a skilled nursing or care home, it can also be useful for those who:
- Live in assisted living facilities
- Spend time in an adult day care center
- Receive in-home care and assistance
It is a form of insurance that can help pay for the cost of the daily assistance required as well as offering some funding towards daily living expenses, which cannot be received through other means.
Some insurance companies that offer LTC may also provide additional benefits such as respite care, which means that carers can get a break when required while knowing that their loved ones are still being taken care of.
Other benefits such as funding towards modifications of the insurers’ home, as ramps or assisted bathing facilities may be required.
If you require long term care and daily assistance or are caring for someone in this position, then you will want to consider looking into LTC quotes online.
How Does LTC Work?
Like any other insurance policy, LTC will pay out a stated benefit to the policyholder in return for a premium.
To be able to apply for this kind of insurance, however, you will need to qualify for certain benefits. For most insurance companies, there are two main ways that someone can qualify for long term care insurance:
- Being determined to have a cognitive impairment or disability by a medical assessment
- If you are unable to perform two of the six ‘activities of daily living’.
Activities of daily living, also known as ADLs, include bathing, dressing, continence, toileting, and feeding independently.
If you qualify for this kind of insurance, then there are several options to consider.
How Does LTC Pay Out?
There are several different forms of benefit payout when it comes to LTC policies, with each company offering different components based on the plan you have taken out with them.
The following are the different ways that an LTC policy can be made up, and they explain how benefits are paid.
- Dollar Amount Coverage
This is one of the key areas of LTC and refers to the daily or monthly cost of care required. Some insurance policies will pay benefits out based on the daily or monthly cost of the care received. In some cases, this can be further broken down into additional reimbursement coverage and indemnity coverage based on your circumstances.
- Benefit Period
When you first apply for long term care insurance, you can determine how long you want the policy to last. This period can be anything from several months to several years, although in most cases, lifetime coverage is no longer available. This means that benefits will be paid out for as long as the policy lasts.
- Inflation Protection
Long term care insurance policies are designed to cover several years at a time, which means that the daily or monthly payout needs to be able to keep up with the current rate of inflation. This means that with this form of LTC, as the cost of care rises, so does the benefit amount that you are entitled to, which ensures that all of your needs are being met.
- Waiting Period (Deductible)
For LTC, the main deductible is called the waiting period, which is the time after care begins, but before the insurance policy has started to payout. The length of this waiting period is something that can be determined by the policyholder, with some companies offering a 0-day waiting period for instant payouts.
To find the best LTC quotes online, make sure to provide as much information as possible to the insurance company about your requirements.
