More Freedom with Indemnity Long Term Care Insurance
Long term care used to be identified with nursing homes but times have changed as it is more associated with in-home care nowadays since a bigger percentage of Americans prefer to remain and receive care at home. This makes indemnity long term care insurance the preferred choice of new long term care insurance (LTCI) buyers.
According to long term care (LTC) statistics, majority of elderly people who are currently receiving care have family members for care providers since they cannot afford to hire a home health aide whose main job is to provide personal or custodial care to an elderly or disabled person.
At present, the country has close to 90% unpaid caregivers and this percentage is expected to grow in the coming years as the number of uninsured individuals continues to increase. Seventy-five percent of these unpaid caregivers are women who are 40 years old or older.
In a decade or two these unpaid caregivers will need someone to take care of them, too, but the problem is that they have long left their jobs to provide 24-hour care to their loved ones. Without anything left in their nest egg, this simply means that they won’t be able to afford a caregiver so they are definitely turning to Medicaid.
There’s nothing wrong with asking a relative to take care of you or to assist with your activities of daily living for as long as you pay him or her for the services that she provides. Unfortunately, many people these days are freeloaders and they couldn’t care less what would become of the future of family members who have sacrificed their jobs just to be able to take care of them round the clock.
Indemnity policies are essentially ideal for individuals who choose to receive care at home and from a loved one. If you own this type of LTCI policy you will get your exact daily benefit amount regardless of how much you’ve actually spent for care. With the money in your hands, you can pay any relative who generously provides you with care or you can choose to hire a home health aide who charges $19 per hour, on average, for assistance with eating, bathing, dressing, use of toilet, and transferring among others.
Indemnity Long Term Care Insurance and its Advantages
Before taking you to the advantages of owning an indemnity LTCI policy, let’s go to the disadvantages first as there are only two.
One of the disadvantages of having this type of policy is that you are required to pay more in premium. Secondly, insured individuals are more likely to spend the money which they get from their insurance policies on products and services that have nothing to do with their LTC requirements.
If one were to buy an indemnity policy, he would need strong self-control in order to sustain his benefits.
When it comes to the advantages of an indemnity policy there are so many. The insured individual can have his home modified and integrated with handicapped ramps, security shower grips, additional railings, and other structures to make it safe. He can also use his money to pay a family member who takes care of him. On top of all these, he does not have to submit to his insurer receipts that have been issued to him by an LTC facility before he can receive his benefits.
To find out if an indemnity long term care insurance policy is ideal for you, talk to a licensed LTCI agent in your area as he can definitely shed light on this.
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