Understanding You And Long Term Care Insurance

By Thomas Kinder

Long term care insurance is insurance which provides for in-home care of the patient. This would be added to the patient's current health insurance program, or it is provided thru Medicare plans. It is a plan which must be purchased separately from services for health coverage such as doctor's appointments or hospice stays.

The services that long term care insurance covers are services for the old or patients who require help with daily living activities at home such as quadriplegics. Daily living activities include dressing, meal preparation, showering, or driving to appointments. This service would pay for somebody like a carer to come into the home to help with these desires. It is useful for folk whose close family members are not able to totally provide these obligations.

The population which has used this insurance most frequently is the elderly and younger folk who cannot function on their own. This may also include services for recess care which could comprise caring for youngsters with incapacities or younger adults who've been seriously wounded. Many old patients might have cognitive abnormalities like Parkinson's illness or Alzheimer's where their communicative and memory abilities are lacking.

Except for in-home care, long-term health insurance may pay for entry to facilities. These would include retirement home care, controlled living facilities, or adult daycares.

There are a few advantages to purchasing long term care insurance. Buying a plan significantly decreases the price of obtaining caregiving services if no long term care insurance plan was ready. These services can be awfully dear and having the insurance company pay for a carer saves an enormous sum of cash. For example, if a patient has Medicare the services are practically no cost to the patient.

Second, purchasing these plans are absolutely tax deductible, and if a business is a paying the premiums for the service, it's also 100 percent deductible.

The most common type of policies available are tax-qualified policies. To qualify for these policies, an individual must employ the services for no less than 90 days. Also, the patient must need help in at least 2 areas of helped daily living ( ADL's ) like eating, meal preparation, dressing, showering, walking, transferring from a bed to chair, continence, for example. A physician must write the orders for a care plan for the patient. This is a tax-qualified policy,the premiums are non-taxed.

There are a few factors which identify long term care insurance rates. They include the age of the patient, the daily benefit of the plan, how long the benefits will pay, and the patient's health rating ( preferred or standard ). Most insurance companies will give married couple's kickbacks on individual policies. Some companies also define "couples" not only to spouses, but to 2 people who meet criteria of living together in a relationship sharing basic living expenses.

There are lots of folk who need extra care at home, and these policies offer a considerable quantity of security for those who cannot take care of themselves. At the same time, they relieve an enormous financial burden if no policy were in place. - 29969

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