Maryland Long Term Care

If you are spending your days busily raising a family, sending kids to college, working or evening looking forward to spending time with grand kids, this is for you. What does long term care have to do with an active and healthy life?

It is just one part of a financial puzzle that protects your loved ones' financial future and well being, as much as ensuring you have the money to care for yourself.

If you are big on family, then your loved ones could not fathom sending you off to a nursing home, hospice for end-of-life or skilled nursing facility to receive long term care services.

If an accident sends you into respite care following a stroke, you might want still want to be with your family.

First off, know where they offer care. Pretty much every line of care that is offered in centers outside the home, is also offered inside the home. For instance, there are hospice care centers just as there is in-home hospice. Alzheimer's care at home may be more complicated, but with help of paid professionals and a whole dedicated family unit it can be done.

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How does long term care insurance work?

In general, long term care insurance pays out a daily amount, as agreed when you buy your policy. Typically, care costs roughly 250 dollars per day. In-home care is not necessarily less expensive, even though your family might be working very hard while keeping you in the house.

Some plans give you a cash outlay and it is your custodian's job to pay for long term care. That's the more costly route to long term care insurance. The other policy types pay a daily limit up to a specified lifetime maximum for the policy. It is generally less expensive to have this type of policy.

Additionally, it leaves the room for someone not to pay the long term care bills out of the equation.

The rates may vary as the needs for care that love ones may provide vacillates. For instance, if you had a stroke and are expected to regain a good deal of functioning and independence, your need for long term care has an end in sight.

In addition, a professional who knows how to work with body mechanics to bathe you would be on a time limit as well.

As you become better, you would regain the ability wash yourself safely alone. In addition, you would eventually regain your ability to feed yourself. Even if you needed to learn new skills to help you remember how to recall a grocery list, get to the store and drive a car, you would be improving.

That means that as you re-learn, you would lessen your reliance on professional home health aides and your family could play an intermediary role. That would all reduce expenses over time.

For others, a cancer diagnoses and fight leads either to better health or to a hospice setting, where the family gets to sit by and send you off in peace. Nursing home care is another option that can be brought into the home. Though, you might need to call on a home health aide to take you to doctors, physical therapy, pick up medications and make sure you take your medication as prescribed.

Shopping for Long Term Care Coverage

Long term care statistics:

1. Fifty percent of people will require long term care at some point in their lives.
2. Forty percent of all people who require long term care are under 65 years old.
3. Long term care is generally required for fewer than 90 days.
4. Still, people need to be prepared for the possibility of needing three to five years of care.
5. Care costs on average 250 dollars per day.
6. Policyholders need to pay for long term care services out of pocket for the insurance waiting period to count.
7. Waiting periods range for 30 to 60 to 90 days.

Start by deciding what kind of care you want and run quotes to see if you could afford the long term care policies for at-home care. Policies cost anywhere from a few thousand a year up to and beyond 5,000 dollars per year.

Take into consideration the financial health of the insurance company from which you buy your long term care insurance. Creditworthiness translates into the company being able to pay out all of your claims, as agreed. Check out the credit ratings for the individual carriers you are considering.

They are looking at your credit score and past history to find out if you will pay your bills on time. They will decide to increase your premiums based upon any late payments. It only makes sense that you should make sure the insurance companies can hold up their end of the bargain.

There are many ways to cover the costs of care, including long term care insurance, exist. Long term care is not a one-size-fits all expense. Even if you had all the cash in the world, you may not want to throw it into paying for long term care.

Here are some tips to buying coverage:

1. Check the insurance companies' premium rate increase history.
2. Long term care insurance premium increases are a real possibility, especially as the senior population grows by leaps and bounds.
3. Decide whether you want to pay premium in one lump sum, over 10 to 20 years or up to age 65.
4. Buy inflation protection, which means daily benefit payments will keep pace with inflation. Inflation guard adds anywhere from 25 to 40 percent to policy premiums.

You may be wondering if you can make more than one claim on a long term care policy. Figuring in the statistics that 50 percent of the population requires long term care makes that a great question. The short answer is yes, you may use your insurance more than once.

Say you have a stroke, requiring three months of care. Imagine that you bought a policy that would take care of you for five years. If you had a subsequent car accident requiring re-learning to walk, for instance, and health aides, you would be able to use the coverage.

This is why most policies underwritten today are called guaranteed renewable. In addition, the The insurance company cannot raise your premium without raising all Maryland residents' long term care policies.

What if you cannot afford the policy any longer?

It is a likely concern. These policies are expensive. If you paid dutifully and on time for 10 years, you would stand to lose maybe 30,000 to 50,000 dollars.

With a non-forfeiture clause on your policy, it means that you would not lose all your money. It adds approximately 10 percent to your policy. In exchange for the non-forfeiture, you would perhaps receive reduced daily benefits. If you have the inflation barrier in place, it helps you keep more of your benefits too.

Other interesting long term care policy benefits may include the following:

1. Benefits Waiver
2. Premium Refund upon Death
3. Downgrade

If you have the premium refund upon death specified in your long term care insurance policy, it means your insurance premiums are remitted to your estate following your death. The insurance company subtracts any benefits it paid out. You may also want to look for a benefits waiver in your policy, which forgoes your premium payments while you are receiving benefits.

The downgrade is another way of saying that if you have to stop paying the premiums, but have a non-forfeiture clause, you will still receive benefits at a lower amount.

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