Predetermining Your Long Term Care Needs

Being in that lucrative job and earning all that money is pointless if you will only end up losing what you have now to the high cost of long term care (LTC). Having long term care insurance will protect you but you have to examine carefully your long term care insurance benefit period, maximum benefit amount, elimination period, and inflation protection for all of these will impact the price of your coverage. rnPerhaps you’re thinking that buying a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy is too complex because there are so many factors to consider besides your future health care needs. Aside from familiarizing yourself with the cost of care in your area, there’s also the need to calculate your future LTC costs. rnYou find these tasks too mind-boggling but do you know that structuring your LTCI policy is not as difficult as you think? All you have to do is to identify which outside factors will affect each component of your policy. rnFor example, the level of care that you will require someday will have an effect on your maximum benefit period while the cost of that type of LTC will have an impact on your maximum daily benefit amount. rnYour elimination period, on the other hand, should be determined by your nest egg. While it is ideal to have a one-year waiting period as this will pull down your annual premium, this is not advisable if you have less than a $100,000 in assets. rnMeanwhile, your policy’s level of inflation protection should depend on your age. If you are going to buy your policy before the age of 60 you are advised to get the 5% compound annual inflation protection as this will double the initial amount of your benefits in just a period of 14 years. rnLong Term Care Insurance Benefit Period rnNow the focus of this article is the maximum benefit period of an LTCI policy because many people think that this feature is less important to the maximum daily or monthly benefit amount. rnThe benefit period is very important because it is the amount of time that you will receive coverage from your policy. Think of it as the timer of your policy that signals your benefits to kick in after you have satisfied your policy’s waiting period. rnOnce you’ve reached the end of your benefit period you will cease to receive coverage from your LTCI policy unless you still have remaining benefits that have yet to be utilized. rnBefore you can predetermine your benefit period, you have to know your future health care requirements first and there’s no better way to figure out what these are than going to your doctor. rnAccording to licensed physicians, there is a correlation between an individual’s lifestyle and health. An individual who follows a healthy lifestyle which involves eating right, getting enough exercise and sleep has lesser chances of acquiring a chronic illness while a person who engages in vices will likely require years of nursing home care. rnHow are you faring so far in the health department? After seeing your doctor, discuss your long term care insurance benefit period and your policy in its entirety with your trusted LTCI agent.