Long term care health-insurance policies have been around for a while. However, you are probably hearing about Long term care health-insurance policies that cover home care and assisted living expenses more now than you ever did before. The choices available are quite varied.
Many elderly seniors and the family caregivers believe that if something happens, Medicaid will pay for it.
Medicaid is a welfare program, managed state by state. It is there to provide assistance to the very poor.
Each state has varying levels of criteria to meet and so it will depend on where you live. In some states, you are restricted to a cap of $1,500 in total assets and your monthly income (from social security, pensions, and so forth) must be under $1,200 per month.
Shock at the cost of a continuum care facility, an assisted living facility and one that specializes in Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia care, with those that assumed Medicaid would pay, is common in our line of work.
Realizing that your parents will hand over all of their monthly income and be permitted to keep a forty-dollar monthly allowance is a hard pill to swallow.
In order for Medicaid to begin paying for services, you will need to 'spend down'. Spend down means that you will use all of your assets to pay for the services at a facility, until you have reached the level allowed for assets.
Those of us in the 'baby-boomer' population ought to pay close attention to the benefits of long term care health-insurance as well. It is like any other policy, the younger and healthier you are when you apply, the less your monthly premiums will be.
There are products out there that will combine a life insurance policy with long-term care insurance. If it turns out you do not need the LTC policy, at least you have paid for the life insurance and that is something we all have anyway.
Note
Long-term stays in a facility can range from $1,500 a month to $4,000 a month and more. An elderly person with savings, pensions, IRA's and other investments in the range of $100,000 is not unusual.
Using the low end of $1,500 a month, within five years, everything you wisely saved, is now gone. A LTC Insurance policy protects the loss of your assets.
We continue to receive far more inquiries from the consumer than we have businesses to recommend and endorse. To learn if you qualify please visit our business-related site at Quality Elder Care