Thursday, 29 December 2011

Understanding Long-term Care Insurance

By Chris Sacco


Getting older isn't any fun. Many middle age adults tend to ignore the fact that they are indeed getting older, and as they cope with their own approaching mortality, they all too frequently find themselves face to face with their parents' issues of advancing years. As these adults try to provide whatever assistance they can for mom and dad, they rue the day that they decided that long term care insurance just wasn't worth looking into. But, what is long term care insurance?

Long term care insurance is an excellent investment, no matter what age you are when you buy your policy. Unfortunately, too many of us ignore the fact that we are going to get old someday, and we put off anything to do with forcing us to deal with our own mortality. Until it's almost too late.

As we put off buying the insurance, the premiums increase and finally, for too many of us, we learn the hard way that we will be needing some type of long term care and we either find that we have huge deductibles because we'll need to use our regular health insurance, or worse, we find out we have to pay for everything out of pocket.

However, dollar for dollar, long term care insurance is one of the most affordable insurances on the market in terms of what you get for your money. This type of insurance provides exactly what it promises - funds to pay for long term care - whether in a medical facility such as a nursing home, or even at home.

Policies differ, as with all sorts of insurance, and you can pick and choose options according to what you can afford or according to what you believe you might need. For instance, if Alzheimer's runs in your family, you may want to get a plan that supports the in depth level of specialized care these patients need. If everyone in your family lives till 105 and drops dead on the golf course, you may decide to purchase a lesser type of coverage.

Deciding on the type of coverage you want might take into consideration your family history. Someone whose family suffers from heart attacks and strokes might select a more in depth type of coverage than someone whose family members tend to live well into their 90s without major health issues.

When the time comes, a long term coverage policy can provide a tremendous amount of financial help along with the peace of mind you along with the rest of your family will need in order to get through the current health crisis at hand. Typically, additional out of pocket expenses are minimal, or nothing at all.




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