Long Term Care Insurance

This week I had a visit from an insurance agent selling long term care insurance.  When she first called, I specifically asked her if I could insure a family member living in a different state.  I was told no problem.

Be sure to take a look at a response I received from a reader posted just below the article.

Now this company only deals with long term care insurance not health insurance or life insurance.  They are specialists who know who they can insure and who they will lose money on. 

If you have a heart condition, no problem on getting the insurance because most heart conditions lead to death in a very short time.  On the other hand, if you have diabetes they will not insure you (based on what type of treatment you are currently under) because your disease can take years to kill you with multiple amputations in the process.

If you have two conditions you probably will not get the insurance.  If your condition has been diagnosed as fatal, you probably will not get the insurance without a much higher premium or you can elect to take sort of a supplemental policy that provides a care giver when hospice is not at the home.  The obvious time to get this insurance is before any detrimental diagnoses are out there.  The cost to insure both myself and my husband was only $113 a month.

The cost for us to insure my mother-in-law (who currently has leukemia) would be only $118 a month for $100 a day care. That is not bad.

Why did we not buy the insurance?  We would have to lie on the application stating that his mother was currently staying with us and forge her name and call her and tell her to lie when the insurance company called to confirm.  This information was accompanied with broad winks from the agent.  Yes you can insure someone living in another state, but first they have to be staying with you and then move.

Although she has stayed with us in the past, she is not currently here nor will she be here this year.

For the sake of argument, say I was willing to lie.  On review of claims, if false information was given, the claim can be denied and all monthly premiums would be forfeit. If you have to lie to get a long term care policy, what are the odds that that lie would bounce back and bite you. There is a big rush to get her insured before there is a terminal diagnosis.

In my opinion, insurance is a necessary evil.  Car insurance is required by law. Life insurance is based on a guilt trip if you don't leave money to your children or spouse. Yes I know, enough money for the children to go to college and pay off all the existing bills including the home and leave the surviving spouse without any financial worries. Oh yes and you can even buy a burial policy to provide for that.
Excuse me but health insurance is a farce - don't even go there. Now we have long term care insurance.

The government is encouraging all of us to invest in this insurance because we all know that Medicare and social security will not give us much of a retirement. Because our health is at an all time low, we need to look at the possibility of needing this insurance.

The fact is that now conventional medicine can keep you alive in circumstances that just a few years ago would have put you in your grave. This has nothing to do with the quality of life only life itself.

We have to look at the possibility of needing long term care not only for ourselves but our parents and our children.  How many of us live close enough to our parents to provide in-home care?  How many of us would have to give up a job in order to provide that care?  How many of us could afford to give up that job?

If your Mom or Dad develops Alzheimer's, how will you provide for them.  Do they have their own long term care insurance?  Who will watch over them while you are at work?  Will you be forced to put them in a "home" and who will pay for that - not Medicare or Medicaid.

What are the alternatives to paying for a long term care policy?  The most obvious is to either get healthy or maintain your health with proper diet exercise and stress control.

But what happens if the gremlins pop up and put you in a car accident that doesn't kill you but requires months of rehabilitation.  Oh, easy answer - car insurance and lawsuits.  Maybe, but what about the people who are driving without insurance and don't think for a moment that they don't exist.  I was rear ended by one.  Sure, she was fined but that left the repairs to my insurance company who raised my rates.  Read the not so fine print on your auto policy - there is a limit to how much they will pay on a claim.

Do you take that monthly premium amount of $120 and put it in savings?  That is only $1,440 a year and long term care will take that much in a month.  Do you invest that money in the stock market?  That is a whole new subject I am not qualified in the least to discuss.

What is the answer?  Answers - as individual as you are and your circumstances are.  For many of us a long term care insurance policy will be the answer.  Some will do nothing and let the chips fall where they may.  The bottom line of any insurance is that the company is betting you won't be able to collect and you are betting that you will.

I had this response from one of my readers

Hi, Sharono.

There are some long term care policies that will allow someone from another state (e.g. your mother) to be covered under your policy. You would not need to lie about her true state of residence. The agent selling the policy would only need to be licensed in your state.

But, the simplest solution to your problem would be to work with an agent who is licensed in your state AND your mother's state. That agent could sell a policy for you and a policy for your mother. Depending upon the company, you might even be able to get a discount on each policy for buying more than one policy.

Lastly, anyone who is currently diagnosed with leukemia would not be able to qualify for a long term care insurance policy. In fact, anyone who is currently being treated for any type of cancer would not be able to qualify for a long term care insurance policy until the treatments were finished and the person was cancer-free. Depending upon the type of cancer, the cancer survivor would have to be cancer-free for at least 3 months (i.e. in the case of prostate cancer) or as long as 24 months or more.


Scott A. Olson, CLTC
www.LTCInsuranceShopper.com 



Posted by Scott A Olson, CLTC to Natural Health from Answers For Your Health at 12:18 PM