What is long term care insurance?

Age always has this habit of catching up and whether the person in question is you, your parents or your grandparents, the older the age, the bigger is the need for care. Your parents may be over 60 years old and independent but they are aware of the fact that a sudden illness or accident can be extremely difficult to overcome. This triggers the need for long term care. While at ages before 60 your parents are independent and self-sufficient. Still, they realize that an accident, sudden illness or simple aging could trigger the need for long term care.

The first thing to understand about long term care is that it is very expensive. How is it different from traditional medical care? In traditional medical care, there is a process of rehabilitation through medicines or medical care for a certain period. In long term care the rehabilitation process may be permanent or for the rest of life. Long term care objectives are targeted at helping people with chronic conditions. These chronic conditions can be life threatening as well as take away their ability to function independently like the Alzheimer’s disease.

Old age can be quite painful especially if your parents or one of them is unable to eat, bathe or dress all by themselves. It can cause a difficult situation because old age means they are prone to physical and mental sickness as well as injury. Sometimes, in old age people have to conduct their necessary routine functions in the bed itself because they are unable to walk to the washroom.

Whether your parents or grandparents require long term care or not is defined by six actions. These actions are also known as Activities of Daily Living or ADL’s. This means that if you are unable to perform two or more activities then you need long term care. It also holds true if there is cognitive impairment. Long term care can be provided not only in nursing homes but at your home, in day care facilities for adults, and assisted living facility. It’s expensive, so how can you cope with it? The only way to fight the expense is by having a long term care insurance policy.

The best time to buy long term care insurance is when you are younger. There are times when older people get a rejected application for the policy. So it is important to apply when young and the premium will also be lower for the various benefits offered by the insurance policy. In a long term care insurance policy, the premium is fixed. The premium is set once and that is at the time you buy it and from there it will not change for life.

According to a survey in August 2005 by MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI), some statistical information has been collected for long term care. The average cost in a semiprivate nursing home room in Shreveport, LA was $3000 while in New York City, it was $9,500 per month. If you stay for a year, the cost in Shreveport will be $36,850 and $112,400 in New York City. For assisted living facility, the August 2005 average monthly base rate was $1,650 in Jackson, MS and $4,300 in the Stamford, CT. area.