As more and more Americans live longer, the need for a Long Term Care plan must be given priority by those who want to assure themselves that their future medical needs are met and that they are properly taken care of when they get old.

Statistics show that almost 40 percent of people who are over or aged 65 will need Long Term Care services at some point in their lives. Retirees should not depend solely on Medicare, Medicaid, or any other private insurance packages because these will not pay the majority of the services that the retirees need. A Long Term Care insurance plan is the most reliable assurance that you will get the kind of care and protection that you need when you have no one left to take care of you.

But a Long Term Care plan must be perfectly planned and you must also be well-informed of how it actually works before taking the plunge to buy one. Some of the important details might be confusing for those who are new to this kind of insurance program. Thorough analysis and considerations must be taken in order to find the perfect Long Term Care insurance plan that fits your needs and more importantly, your budget.

Long Term Care insurance is a kind of insurance that covers the medical needs and extended professional services for elderly people who have prolonged diseases or illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s. The services may come by means of a nursing home or other medical facilities that the policyholder might use should the need for those arise. A Long Term Care insurance plan also includes payment for rehabilitation and therapy, homemaking services, everyday personal care and assistance for the affected policyholder. It can also pay for the professional care fee at home that the policy owner might be in need of.

The best time to purchase Long Term Care insurance is while you are still young — working, and healthy. Long Term Care plans have certain levels of inflation protection based on the policy owner’s age when he acquired one. For those who bought a Long Term Care policy below 61 years of age, an annual compounded inflation of not less than 3 percent is provided to safeguard the interest of the policyholder.

It is now easier to inquire insurance policy costs with the help of a Long Term Care quote that is available online. Most Long Term Care insurance companies offer free assessment and provide the interested applicants a Long Term Care quote when they submit their application or inquiry online. It shows the estimated amount of the premium and rates of the possible Long Term Care plan that the person wishes to avail. Certain information like present medical condition of the applicant, age at the time of the application, family medical history, and social lifestyle are needed and might affect the price range of the Long Term Care quote that the applicant applied for.

A Long Term Care quote might also be affected by variables such as the location of your residence, the price or rate of long term care services in your area, and the duration of the coverage that you think you will need.

With all these taken into consideration, it is up to the applicant to project or design the best Long Term Care plan that is useful and helpful to him. Additional and more detailed information about Long Term Care and Long Term Care quote may be asked directly to an authorized insurance agent or from other authorized representatives from insurance companies.

If only the price of long term care services had remained stable or eventually lower, then it could have not caused problem and frustration among millions of American seniors and the retiring baby boomers. Unfortunately, long term care costs surge higher that what everyone has expected,

and it is now the reason why families are compelled to deplete their savings to save their ailing or old loved ones.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America recently conducted nationwide survey on the rates of home care and facilities including nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The report is a comparison between the 2004 and 2010 costs of care, which shows the staggering changes in the prices of long term care services within that time period. LTC prices have increased 4.7% to 6.6 per year since 2004, but the increment varies largely on the kind of services. The Consumer Price Index (refers to purchasing power and inflation rate) has gained 2.5 percent annually since 2004, which implies the CPI is low enough to stabilize the skyrocketing prices of long term care services.

Prudential Life teamed up with LifeCare to gather data from various facilities throughout 50 states and the District of Columbia. There were 576 nursing homes; 562 assisted living facilities, 576 home health care agencies that were surveyed for this study. There were 75 metropolitan areas interviewed for the completion of the project.

Results
The growing population of retiring baby boomers may drastically increase the long term care

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Not so many people are aware of the possibilities that when we reach the age of 65, we might need extended help because there might be things that we would not be able to do on our own anymore. But this extended help does not come cheap. And this just might cost you to spend all your hard-earned savings and assets.

But you can prevent this from happening if you have carefully planned your future. Purchasing a Long Term Care policy will help you lessen your worries about the expensive costs of nursing-home facilities and other services that you might need when you retire and cannot take care of yourself any longer.

A Long Term Care insurance plan covers medical and non-medical needs of the insured individual. It attends to the daily necessities of those who have illnesses or diseases that have to be given extra attention and must be immediately taken care of. Insured individuals may receive Long Term Care in nursing-home facilities or even at their own home, depending on what the policy owners prefer. The services provided in a Long Term Care

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Long Term Care insurance is undoubtedly one of the most important necessities that every individual American resident should invest on. With these trying times, we can never really be sure of anything or of what is going to happen. So it is just appropriate to plan wisely on the things that will be helpful to us when we are gray and old.

Some Long Term Care insurance information is easily available on the internet. Insurance companies provide free online assessment of the possible cost of your Long Term Care insurance should you want to avail one. Certain information such as the applicant’s age, present health condition, family medical history, and kind of lifestyle affect the range of the premium and rate of the Long Term Care insurance quote that you might get. Being a smoker or non-smoker of the applicant also has an effect on the insurance’s cost.

Long Term Care insurance is especially established to cover the expenses for long term care services such as rehabilitation and therapy of the insured individual, daily personal care from medical professionals, nursing home facilities, and use of other medical facilities that the policyholder needs. The owner of Long Term Care insurance might also be treated or taken care of at his own home if he prefers it rather than to stay in a nursing home.

Other government agencies like that of the local Department of Insurance of some states also give out Long Term Care insurance information to the residents. Some even offer their natives a Long Term Care insurance partnership program. It aims to help individuals prepare for their future by allowing them to buy a partnership program and still apply for Medicaid insurance once they have used up all their Long Term Care insurance

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On March 23, 2010, President Barrack Obama signed into law the Health Care Reform bill known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which includes the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) provisions. It aims to aid the American people to ease the burden of expensive health care insurance and provide them an alternative that secures their medical and non-medical needs in the future without stressing their budget and savings too much. This Long Term Care CLASS act is the latest in a series of measures the government has taken to promote and encourage people to plan and acquire Long Term Care insurance.

The CLASS act is a consumer-financed insurance pool being administered by the government, and is in fact the first government-run Long Term Care insurance program. CLASS act took effect on January 1, 2011 but other details and information have not yet been defined and will still be developed and worked on by the Department of Health and Human Services for two and a half years. As per their website, the program “will be available after October 2012.” After this period, claims could start being paid by then.

This provision aspires to help and cover the Long Term Care needs of almost 32 million Americans who are still uninsured. It will benefit those who were rejected of a private insurance plan and those who belong below the poverty line. These people can obtain Long Term Care coverage with limited benefits leaving aside their current or past medical conditions. Although this provision was initiated and run by the government, the benefits of the CLASS act will be remunerated by the premiums acquired from voluntary participants, and not from the taxpayers, which was the concern of most people when the CLASS act was first proposed.

An individual who wishes to enroll must be employed, must be working for at least three years and must pay premiums for at least five years.

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As the need for Long Term Care insurance rises, more and more alternatives are being developed and presented by the private insurance providers and by the government as well. They are aware that providing cheaper alternatives than the usual Long Term Care costs is important to help encourage the American citizens to plan ahead and have their savings and assets put into good use after many years of hard work.

Long Term Care costs depend on several requirements and conditions that have been laid out by the states and insurance companies. Some states which offer the Long Term Care insurance partnership program requires the applicants to be a resident of the state at the time of the partnership program’s approval and must have documents to prove their state residency. The applicant also has to conform to the financial and non-financial requirements that the state requires for further review of their application and qualification. Although some Long Term Care insurance rules and policies may be the same for each participating state, Long Term Care costs may vary. An average daily benefit of a Long Term Care plan for some states in a nursing home costs $130 while some amount to the maximum daily benefit of $200. Since Long Term Care costs for each state differs, it is essential that you have an idea of how much Long Term Care insurance is in your area.

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One of the major features of a long term care policy is referred to as the “benefit amount”. This is the sum of money that long term care insurance pays out for the person’s care after the policyholder completed or passed the elimination period. This determines policyholder’s choice on how much he would like his policy insurance to pay out to him in benefits at the time of claim. When looking at the long term care insurance policy, benefit amount is one of the most important decisions to make. The amount can be either daily or monthly.

The daily benefit amount is simply the benefits given on a daily basis by the policy owner’s insurance. Policy holders can choose daily benefit amount ranging from $50.00 to more than $300.00 for nursing home coverage. Policyholders however are responsible for the actual nursing home or living facilities costs that exceed the daily benefit amount purchased. On the other hand, a monthly pay benefit is given monthly. Since home care expenses are not the same from day to day, more of the newer policies in the marketplace offer the latter. It can sometimes involve higher cost but the difference is that instead of being limited for example at $100.00 a day, you have access to $3000.00 a month if you need it. You may need $200.00 worth of services on one day and only just $50.00 the next day. Monthly benefit amount is more flexible.

Policy owners should be updated on the current prices of nursing home or assisted living facilities in their area at the time of claim to avoid

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One more feature that plays a significant role in choosing the price of long term care insurance is so called the Benefit Period. This term refers to the duration or length of time that the insurance will pay for the policyholder’s care from the point of claim, or how long the insured will receive the benefits. Being knowledgeable and aware of what benefit period is can maximize your health coverage and save on long term care insurance premiums at the same time.

Nationally, the average care of time that the care is required is between two and three years. The three year benefit period correspond to the average length of stay in a nursing home or assisted living facilities. Most LTCi companies however offer two year care coverage, with an option to extend the benefits to five years or even to a lifetime or unlimited benefit period coverage.

Some of the long term care insurance policies today offer “pool or bucket of money” concepts. The benefits for this kind of approach may be higher than the actual period. In this concept the insurance take the daily benefit amount purchased and multiply it by the amount of days in the benefit period. If the policyholder receives services that cost less than his daily benefit amount, or if he does not receive services daily, the benefits will last longer than the benefit period. Example of this kind is that if a cardholder has five year insurance policy and pays out $200 daily, but he only uses $100 per day, the difference or the amount that has not been used will be kept in a pool of money. This being the case the five year insurance could last to up to ten years! The money will stay around waiting for the policyholder to use it.

When choosing the benefit period, it is important to look at the policyholder’s family health history, current age, and health status with the consideration on how much money he is willing to spend for the premium. According to US Department of Health and Human Services, the average length of stay in a nursing home is 2.4 years. People can consider the two year benefit period if he wants a basic level of protection. However, if the person applying for the long term insurance benefit has a family history of Alzheimer’s, then a longer benefit period is recommended. It is important not be overwhelmed in insuring your health to avoid purchasing longer benefit period and end up unable to pay the premiums.

Obviously, policies with longer benefit period are significantly more expensive because policyholder will be getting longer pay-out period as compared to those with shorter benefit periods. It is recommended to speak with a LTCi specialists before choosing the benefit period as these people can help in reviewing someone’s personal and family history. It is important to anticipate the future risks and average number of years for a typical nursing home stay to prevent overpayment and financial mistakes.

One of the details of provisions that is often overlooked, forgotten and misunderstood by policyholders about long term care insurance is Elimination Period. This feature, which is an important aspect of the policy, is usually referred to as deductible period, or waiting period. Elimination period is an specified amount of time that the policyholder will cover his own care expenses before the insurance company takes charge. For example, of the policyholders elimination period is 60 days, he needs to be disabled for 60 days before any insurance benefits or coverage begins.

Most of the LTCi has elimination period before the policy is triggered and a policy holder can begin receiving the benefits. It is important to understand the significance of various provisions in reference to elimination period expressed in policies and the state in which the policyholder lives.

There are several elimination period being offered by care insurance company. It could be 30, 60, 90, 180, and 365 days. It is rare to find companies that offer zero day elimination period. Those who policy holder owning a bulk of assets can choose 180 or 365 days.

Policyholder can choose whether to take a shorter or longer waiting/elimination period. But what is a reasonable choice? It will help a lot to understand the difference of the two before making decision. Shorter elimination period means lesser expenses when the time comes for the policyholder to receive the benefits. This kind of elimination period requires a higher premium compared to the longer elimination period because the insurance company does not cash out on the first care expenses of the policyholder. This can have a dramatic effect on the premiums that the policyholders pay throughout the policy. The longer waiting period means a longer waiting time but a lower premium pay of the policyholders. If you will to take the longer benefit period it is important that you have enough resources and savings.

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It is a common knowledge that long term care insurance is expensive and that by a year or two the rates could ascend direly. An insurance purchased now may be of little value after ten to twenty years, and when this happens, the burden is being shouldered by American adults who hopelessly need long term care. This being the case, what is the best thing to do to secure the policy of insurance against the rising cost of care as time goes by? The answer is Long Term Care Inflation.

Long Term Care Inflation increases the policyholder’s daily or monthly benefit amount that will compensate with the inflation and increased cost of care. This is an option with most commercial insurance coverage. Policies with inflation protection may increase premium pay but it will surely help policyholders to save for the future rates.

It is not required to purchase inflation protection, however due to drastic increase in medical expenses as each year passes , inflation protection is an option which is so important and must be considered in a Long Term Care Insurance policy. If the insurance policy purchased has no inflation protection, insurance company will only pay for a small portion of actual cost of the future care expenses. Without inflation protection, long term care insurance will pay future expenses based on the time the plan was purchased. For example, the benefit will be used 20 years from now and it has no inflation protection, the policyholder is required to pay the difference between the amount paid by the insurance and the actual cost of care.

Several choices in purchasing policies with inflation protection are as follows:

1. 5% Simple or Equal Inflation Protection
2. 5% Compound Inflation Protection
3. Future Purchase Option
4. Consumer Price Index (CPI)
5. 3% Compound
6. 4% Compound

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