How to Choose Your Long Term Care Plan
There are many types of long term care plan but not every one of these will suit your needs. Before deciding which one to settle for it is important to recognize what you will possibly need in the aspect of long term health care so as not to end up wasting your money on the wrong plan.
Recognizing your future health care needs will make it easier for you to decide where to receive care someday and how you should fund it. It’s not enough to say that you will stick to in-home care, which is the preference of most Americans, because in the event that you develop or acquire a condition that will require institutional care you will be subjected to higher costs and your nest egg better be enough to cover these.
The best thing that you can do right now is to heed the advice of LTC specialists in line with LTC planning. Their advice is actually composed of four parts and these are as follows:
- See your doctor. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not only the sick who should visit the doctor. Everyone should visit his or her family doctor as often as she goes to a salon or a gadgets shop. Using her health insurance she will no doubt be able to avail a general checkup for a discounted price.
- Study your genes. Investigate your family’s health history to find out if you are genetically predisposed to some kind of chronic illness. Knowing what you can potentially acquire health-wise will keep you ahead of LTC costs.
- Know the figures. You perhaps know the country’s average cost of care but do you know how much a home health aide in your area charges per hour? Population and access to LTC services are factors that affect the cost of care in a state or city so conduct a research and after having gathered all of the figures, compute tomorrow’s LTC costs taking inflation into account.
- Sit down with an expert. By expert, this could refer to an elder care attorney, a financial adviser, or a long term care insurance (LTCI) specialist who is well-versed in LTC and financial planning.
Long Term Care Plans
Although new types of LTC plans continue to emerge, no one can argue that an LTCI policy is still the best defense against expensive LTC.
Buying the traditional LTCI policy is more cost-effective because it does not require a person to pay a lump sum into his coverage. In fact, LTCI buyers can choose how to pay the premium of their coverage. Those who are financially able go for the single-premium payment, others opt for the limited-payment mode while the general public prefers the continuous-payment method.
LTCI comes in different types in order to meet every person’s LTC requirements. For instance, a reimbursement LTCI policy is designed for individuals who are anticipating facility care. This policy would require the insured to furnish his insurer with official receipts from a qualified LTC provider before he gets reimbursed up to his maximum daily benefit amount.
Indemnity policies, on the other hand, are intended for people who wish to acquire care at home. With this type of policy the insured will be able to receive his maximum daily benefit amount in full, only if he has acquired qualified LTC services. Now under this LTCI policy there is one more type of policy called the disability model indemnity plan, or cash policy, which pays the insured his maximum monthly benefit amount regardless if he received care or not.
It helps to be familiar with different types of long term care plans before forking out your hard earned money on something you are not sure about. If there are questions bugging you, contact a licensed LTCI specialist.
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