How to Compare Long Term Care Quote

Shopping for long term care quote from major ltc carriers is easy but comparing long term care quotes is another story and it’s a bit complicated and hard. Here are some of the steps on how to make this task easy.

1. Familiarize yourself with the terms used

One thing that makes comparing quotes difficult a bit confusing is the terms used. For example, one carrier might call one of its inflation protection feature as 5% Equal and the other refer to it as 5% Simple. These two are just the same in terms of the services they provide and their only difference is their name.

2. Comparing your daily benefit amount

Just remember that the change in premium of your daily benefit amount either in an increasing or decreasing manner will always be linear. For example, the cost of a $200 benefit amount is 50% higher than that of a $150 daily benefit amount.

3. Check if your benefit period or pool of money is just the same

4. Study carefully if the features offered are the same.

5. It also pays to check other details like if your nursing home or home health expenses will be covered in full or just half of it.

 

Long Term Care Tax Deductions

Even if you don’t admit it, many of you are discouraged to apply for long term care insurance because it’s expensive and you’re confident that you will not need long term care anytime soon. The government has recognized this and that’s why they offer tax deductions. So far, so good because people are getting more interested in requesting for long term care quote from variety of carriers.  With these deductions, people will find ltc policies as more affordable. In order to understand long term care tax deductions further, here’s a short video you can watch.

 

This shows that your long term care insurance premiums paid for a tax-qualified long term care is considered as a medical expense and thus it is tax deductible. You also need to remember that the amount of your long term care tax deduction is based from your age on the tax year.

I guess you can still save money when you purchase long term care plans even without the government program referred to as CLASS Act. Why suffer and pay for expensive long term care services when you can have a policy that would shoulder everything and tax deductible, right?

How to Choose the Right Long Term Care Insurance for You

Choosing the right ltc insurance that would perfectly suit you is not as complicated as it seems. This is one of the reasons why people avoid the idea of purchasing one early. In most cases, it’s too late for them to apply for long term care coverage and thus exhausting their savings as well as their assets. In order to avoid this kind of inconvenience you can follow these simple steps on how you can choose the right policy for you:

 

1. Get familiar with long term care policy, find out about the different types of policies such as Indemnity Long Term care Insurance, Reimbursement Long Term Care Insurance and Partnership Long Term Care Insurance. Gathering resources is the most important thing you should do.
2. Decide the daily benefit amount you want to receive. Considering your age, current health status, family history and risk factors can help you come up with a decision much easier. Before making a decision, you should research for the cost of senior care facilities first. You should remember that companies can provide $50 to $250 daily. Choose the daily benefit amount that is enough to cover your needs and you can afford.
3. Choosing the benefit period is also very important. This is commonly known as the period of time the company will pay for your long term care needs. Keep in mind that the benefit period is very dependent on the amount of assets you are protecting. To give you an idea, policyholders usually choose coverage for a lifetime or between 2 to 5 years.
4. Pay attention to situations that would trigger your benefits. Find out first if the policy will require you to get hospitalized first within a certain number of days before you can get coverage for nursing home or home care.
5. The policy should be guaranteed renewable. It means that the company has no right to cancel your policy for as long as you have paid your premiums on time. This is one of the important things you should look into when looking for long term care insurance.
6. Look for a policy that can waive your premiums once you’ve started to receive your benefits.
7. Make sure that your policy has inflation protection.  As you grow older your daily benefit amount increases as well. So even if the cost of care becomes more expensive you still get enough coverage from your policy.

 

 

Reap More Benefits from Early Purchase of LTC Insurance

Long term care (LTC) is getting expensive every year that is why the experts on the field would constantly remind everybody to buy your LTC insurance policy early as it is the only product that will protect your finances, family, and your dignity. It wouldn’t be that costly only if CLASS Act was not cancelled but don’t fret because there are still other ways how to cut the cost.

Long term care insurance (LTCI) is not like any regular commodity which people can buy off the store’s shelf and use right away. This type of insurance product requires buyers to be young and healthy but it will benefit them later once they’re frail, injured or disabled.

LTCI policies offer what you can never get from your regular health insurance, which, only covers certain types of medical services such as vision checkup, dental treatment, doctor’s fees, physical examination, and other related ones. It will neither foot your nursing home bills nor pay the home health care agency which is responsible for providing you with a home health aide or homemaker services.

Ignoring the importance of having an LTCI policy will subject you to very high out-of-pocket costs should you wind up acquiring LTC in the future. It’s important to note that only individuals who are earning $150,000 or more annually can self-insure because the average annual cost of a nursing home ranges from $77,745 to $85,000.

You can say you won’t enter a nursing home so you don’t have to spend that much, but you can never be too certain about the outcome of your health, can you?

If you are not too confident that you can afford the continuously soaring cost of care, you can look into a tax qualified LTCI policy and spare yourself and your family from possible impoverishment.

Buy Your LTC Insurance Policy Early

Contrary to many misconceptions, you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for the premium of your LTCI coverage if you purchase your policy before the retirement age which is 65. As a matter of fact, if you buy your policy at the age of 50 or younger you can enjoy the privilege of paying less than a thousand dollars every year for your coverage.

This is especially true for those whose health is in tiptop condition. If you don’t manifest symptoms of any illness during your application for an LTCI policy, you can get 10% to 15% good health discount on your premium.

Meanwhile, those who buy their policies after retirement, or a few years before, have smaller chances of clinching premium discounts because when one gets to the age of 65 his health usually begins to deteriorate.

Aside from premium discounts, securing a policy at a younger age will give you reason to look forward to big tax deductions. Premiums that are paid for tax qualified LTCI policies are treated as medical expenses according to the Internal IRS Code Section 213(d), and since medical expenses can be deducted from one’s income tax return you can expect big deductibles every year.

Based on a national survey, less than 10 million people in the country have LTCI policies while the remaining 3.8 million have yet to figure out a plan. This information poses a threat to the government as it is only capable of providing limited LTC coverage via Medicaid.

Shop for long term care quote early and buy your LTC insurance policy early so you don’t rely on mediocre health care services in the future. Furthermore, planning your LTC efficiently will spare your family from possible financial losses which have befallen many families.