Before purchasing long term care insurance, it’s important that you make a comparison (or consult an agent who can do that for you). The fine print in policies can make a big difference in the benefits you select. Let’s look.
It’s common for policies to define your maximum payment as a daily benefit and will pay that amount or your actual expense, whichever is less. For instance, if you select $120 per day as your benefit, that’s the most you can receive for a day of care.
Now let’s say that on Monday, you have someone go to the supermarket for you and your policy covers that. The cost is $20 and the policy will pay $20. The next day, you get eight hours of care and the cost is $200. You will receive a maximum of $120 per your policy. Each day is measured by itself.
Some policies, however, measure the benefit per week. So rather than state the benefit as $120 per day, the benefit is $840 per week. By using a weekly measure, you can spend various amounts each day. And as long as the total qualifying expenses for the week is less than $840, you will receive reimbursement for all of your expenses that qualify under the policy.
Another issue is how the policy counts the waiting period or “elimination period”—the number of days you must pay for care before the policy starts paying. Some policies start counting the first day you pay for care. If you get care just once per week, each day is counted from the first day you paid to the next day you paid. Other polices count only the days you actually pay for care. So if you get care only one day per week, it would take 90 weeks (assuming a 90 day elimination period) until the policy would pay.
You’ve got to read the fine print or find someone who knows the pros and cons of polices and their features. If you have been considering such insurance, please contact us before proceeding so that you get the comparison you deserve. Return the enclosed coupon to get more information.