Don’t Outlive Your Resources During Elimination Period

Buyers of long term care insurance policies are constantly reminded to study, weigh and review all the variables of a potential policy before signing it because sometimes what they deem to be trivial is actually crucial to their coverage. Take the long term care insurance elimination period for example. Also known as the waiting period, the elimination period of a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy is the length of time you have to pay for long term care (LTC) services using your own money or resources. This takes effect on the day that you claim your benefits after having satisfied your policy’s benefit triggers. Insurance companies that sell LTCI policies offer buyers five major types of waiting periods. The shortest would be 30 days followed by 60 days, then there’s 90 days, 180 days, and finally 365 days or one year. Like the maximum benefit amount, maximum benefit period, and inflation protection rider of your policy, your choice of elimination period shall be used by your insurer in determining the rate of your annual premium. If you choose a shorter waiting period the premium of your LTCI coverage will go higher while a longer waiting period will reduce your premium. Now before you conclude that you’re going for the latter, there are certain factors that you have to consider carefully or else you might end up blowing up your LTC expenses. Assess the total amount of your assets by the time you retire so this should include your total savings in the bank, the money that you are expecting upon retirement, and your Social Security allowance. Once you’ve had all these figured out, calculate how much you’re likely to spend on care but before you get to this part you have to identify your LTC requirements first. To be able to point out your LTC needs you have to undergo a thorough physical examination with your doctor and look up your family’s health history so you would know if you are genetically predisposed to a specific type of geriatric illness. Choosing the Appropriate Long Term Care Insurance Elimination Period No one will argue that choosing a longer waiting period will benefit you in terms of the premium of your coverage. Unfortunately, if you choose this right away without checking your personal resources you might wind up using up all of your money before you have completed your elimination period. If that happens you won’t qualify for your benefits and worse, all of your hard earned money would just go to waste. To prevent that from happening identify the specific type of care that you will most probably need in the future since your LTC expenses will depend on your choice of LTC setting. After your present health condition had been checked by a doctor and once you’re done looking up your family’s health history, you will be able to figure out the level of care that you will need and how far your money can go in your choice of long term care insurance elimination period.