Advantages of Buying Your LTC Insurance Policy Early
Financial experts and elder care specialists who are pushing for a better long term care (LTC) system can only advise you to buy your LTC insurance policy early. In the end, it’s still you shall make the final decision.
You and the rest of uninsured residents are not pressured to purchase your long term care insurance (LTCI) policies for nothing. First of all, you have to be conscious of the high cost of care which is expected to quadruple by 2030. Without an LTCI policy, the cost of in-home care, nursing home care, assisted living, and other LTC services will eat up your assets in less than a year.
As of this writing, the median hourly rate of a home health aide according to Genworth Financial, a leading LTCI carrier, is $19 but should LTC costs shoot up four times more 18 years from now these figures will be raised to $76 which translates to $173,888 annually.
If you’re an average American who manages to make ends meet with his eight-to-five job and perhaps a sideline, you should consider buying a comprehensive LTCI policy to be able to receive coverage in a wide range of LTC facilities. You have to note, though, that if you buy your policy too late the insurance firm can either reject your application or qualify you for a rated coverage.
Now if you’re wondering when is it too late to apply or buy an LTCI policy, it’s when you are way beyond the retirement age like 70 or 75. Sometimes, 65 years old is considered too late already for LTCI application as most people start manifesting changes in their health around this time.
Buy Your LTC Insurance Policy Early
To be safe, why not consider buying your policy between the ages of 45 and 55? LTCI buyers within this age bracket almost always get to lock in the preferred health discount which pulls down the premium rates of their coverage.
Unfortunately, some people think that it’s too early to think about LTC at 45 let alone plan it. Perhaps they have yet to hear the stories of people who, at the tender age of 40, had succumbed to multiple sclerosis, early-onset Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
It’s about time everybody stops thinking that LTC is exclusively for old people only because if this belief persists, the nation is bound to face a financial destruction. Anyone regardless of age, gender, and status can be subjected to LTC because no one is really in full control of his life. No matter how cautious you are, an illness or an accident can result in months if not years of LTC. If you are not financially prepared for such unexpected event, it’s not only you who will suffer but your entire family, as well.
If you buy your LTC insurance policy early you don’t have to struggle to maintain the annual premium of your coverage. But if you wait for your 65th birthday you can wind up paying between $7,000 and $8,200 annually for a policy which would’ve cost only a little over $2,000 had you bought it when you were only 45 years old.
Don’t dilly-dally, discuss a potential coverage today with your trusted LTCI representative.
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