Tag Archives: long term care

Why Women Pay More for Long Term Care Insurance

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In the past year, consumers have watched Long Term Care Insurance providers roll out new products with new pricing models that usually cause some questions. One of the main questions that arises when people see the changes to some of the latest policies is: why do women pay more for Long Term Care Insurance?

Gender Based Pricing

Most of the bigger Long Term Care Insurance providers have now implemented pricing models that include gender based pricing. In other words, women pay more for a policy than men do. This price structure is practically brand new and isn’t for no reason. While some women may cry foul and accuse insurance companies of being unfair, the reality is, it’s the old prices that were unfair, not the new.

The principle that sets the entire foundation of insurance is risk. Every component of insurance is based on risk, from the actuarial tables to the underwriting standards to the premium rates. Since the Long Term Care Insurance industry began in the 70s, companies have wised up as to who poses a higher risk than others and they adjusted accordingly.  Women, unfortunately, fall into that category and are now facing the consequences.

Women Are High Risk

The average lifespan for women in the United States is 81 years, compared to just 76 years for men. It is a fact of life that women live longer than men and it should come as no surprise to any one. It makes sense, then, that their chances of needing long term care in their senior years are much higher, too.

Not only do women have more years of life during which they can develop the need for assistance in life, they are also more likely to be widowed. If men need care, there is a good chance their wives will be around to provide it. By the time women need help, their husbands are often deceased and unable to provide the care the wife needs. The disparity explains why women make up 70% of all long term care claims. On top of that, they account for around 80% of all nursing home residents.

Looking at Policies

Insurance companies have gotten wind of these statistics and understand the gap in risk between men and women. Subsequently, they raised premium rates for women to take into account the higher chance of a claim. The higher rates don’t apply to married women, though, because spousal pricing usually applies. Single women, on the other hand, are the ones who are hit the hardest by this new pricing model. Because they have no partner to turn to should they need care, they pose the highest risk to Long Term Care Insurance companies. Therefore, they pay the highest base rates.

This kind of pricing is no less fair than auto insurance pricing that jacks up the rates for teen boys or life insurance pricing that increases the rates for men. Insurance is based on risk, so adjusting for risk is an inevitable part of a growing and learning insurance market. To learn more about Long Term Care Insurance and whether or not it is right for you, click here.

Will Health Care Costs Force You to Spend More in Retirement?

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You’ve established your retirement plan, nailed down your target goals, and are working towards your numbers. Suddenly, you’re faced with a big medical expense that you aren’t prepared to pay for, and you aren’t sure what to do.

What’s Your Plan?

Leaving the workplace brings about all kinds of changes, many of them financial, and planning ahead for each and every one of them can be tough, but it’s worth the effort in the end. Health care expenses in retirement can be huge and if you haven’t developed a plan ahead of time, can leave you in a bad spot when it comes to finances.

Say you were to enter retirement and a couple years later, you suffer a bad fall and break a bone. With the injury and the accompanying frailty, you are now unable to complete all of the tasks you would otherwise be able to, which means you need long term care. Where do you begin? Do you have a plan in place to cover these types of costs, or was your plan to just wing it?

Health Care Expenses

Fidelity Investments released their annual Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate for 2014 recently and the estimate is right on par with the estimate last year. The average 65-year-old couple retiring this year should expect to spend an average of $220,000 on out of pocket health care expenses during retirement.

That estimate assumes both individuals are eligible for Medicare coverage. Something the estimate doesn’t assume? The cost of long term care. If you do happen to need long term care, which an estimated 7 in 10 seniors will, you should expect to pay much more for your health care.

One year of care in a nursing home currently averages more than $87,000, according to Genworth data. One year of home health care is a little more than half that, just topping $45,000. Even if you don’t need nursing home care, the cost is still massive and can take a huge toll on your assets. So, let’s think hypothetically again. If a medical or health emergency were to arise that required you to receive some sort of long term care, would you be prepared to cover the cost or is there still room for improvement when it comes to your long term care planning?

Planning for Long Term Care

Planning for long term care doesn’t have to involve a huge percentage of your assets; instead, you can use a portion of the interest earned on your investment savings to cover the cost of a policy. If you have a pension, you can use your pension to pay for your premiums, as well. Medicare and traditional health insurance won’t cover the cost of long term care, so it’s up to you to look out for yourself.

Long Term Care Insurance can help you do that by providing you with a separate benefit pool to pay for your care in the future. A long term care policy provides you with the financial security every one seeks in retirement and gives you peace of mind that your nest egg won’t be spent on nursing home care.

It’s impossible to know what kind of health issues we may be facing in retirement. As much as we would like it to, our health now doesn’t definitively dictate our health in the future, so it’s wise to plan for some road bumps along the way. Read more about shopping for Long Term Care Insurance and how to find the best policy that fits your needs.

 

Buying Long Term Care Insurance: What You Need to Know

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Shopping for Long Term Care Insurance, just like shopping for any insurance, can be difficult. All the different companies, policy options, and benefit choices can be confusing for someone who isn’t sure exactly what they are looking at, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Long Term Care Insurance can help provide you financial assistance in a time of serious need and preserve your assets at the same time, so it shouldn’t be overlooked or put off because of the buying process. The fact is, 7 in 10 American seniors will need long term care at some point, and a very small percentage of those seniors have long term care coverage. Buying a Long Term Care Insurance policy can put you ahead of the majority and in a place of financial security should the need for long term care ever come about. There are a few basic tips that can help you have the simplest and most rewarding shopping experience possible, so read our suggestions below.

1) Begin browsing early

Chances are if you ever need care, you won’t need it until your 60s, 70s, or 80s, but that doesn’t mean you should wait until then to buy it. On the contrary, the longer you wait to buy, the lower your chances of medically qualifying for a policy. By the time you have a need for care, it’s much too late to apply. Instead of procrastinating the purchase, start looking at policies in your late 40s or early 50s.

Get a good idea of your options and make sure you understand the differences between them all before you lock down and choose one. The best time to buy a policy is in your early 50s because age and health both have a big impact on the premium rates you receive. The younger and healthier you are, the lower your rates will be.

2) Look only at blue chip companies

As tempting as it may be, we don’t suggest buying from a small, local agency or anything of the sort. The biggest companies are the best for a reason; they have knowledge of the topic and experience and data to back it up. When you buy a policy from a blue chip company, there is almost no question that your claim will be paid should you ever submit one. If you buy from a smaller, lesser known, lower rated company, you may run the risk of running into problems when it comes time to submit a claim.

The large insurers have had time to adjust their actuarial assessments, change premium rates, and alter other estimates over the years in order to produce the best Long Term Care Insurance product. It’s always best to buy from a blue chip carrier. Buying from an independent agent who works with all the major companies is your best bet.

3) Choose Inflation Protection

Once you’ve decided on a policy, you must choose the additional riders that will go along with that policy. Truth be told, there is really only one rider that every person buying this insurance needs and that’s Inflation Protection. WIthout Inflation Protection, your policy is just another poor investment. There is no telling how much long term care will cost 20 or 30 years down the road, but Inflation Protection raises the value of your benefits to keep pace with inflation, ensuring your benefits don’t lose value over time.

When you look at the numbers, Inflation Protection will cost you more up front. In just a short time, though, the benefit’s growing value will have made the cost well worth it. Buying a policy without it simply isn’t a smart move.

Long term care brings about all kinds of unknowns, but fortunately, with Long Term Care Insurance, how you will pay for care doesn’t have to be one of them. Read more about the basic components of Long Term Care Insurance or find out if a policy is right for you here.

The Basic Components of Long Term Care Insurance

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If you’re thinking about buying Long Term Care Insurance, chances are you know what it does. Long Term Care Insurance is designed to shield assets from the rising cost of long term care, which often causes sticker shock to those who are paying out of pocket. Long story short, long term care is not cheap. Far from it, actually, and the cost is growing annually. If you understand the financial risk posed by long term care, it’s likely that Long Term Care Insurance is on your list of things to buy.

So, you know what a policy does, but do you know how it works? There are a few basic components of a Long Term Care Insurance policy that are crucial to understand and be aware of before you make the decision to buy.

1)    Benefit period – The benefit period is the length of time that your policy is slated to last. Typical choices include 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. Unlimited benefit periods were once an option in the past, but no longer. They were simply not profitable for Long Term Care Insurance providers who found they were taking heavy losses on these types of policies. A few insurance providers still offer 10 year benefit periods, but most have cut the maximum down to 5 years. Choosing your benefit period, like the rest of the components, is crucial to how much your policy will cost. Industry data has found that about 85% of claims last less than 5 years, so a 5 year policy is enough to hedge against the majority of the risk. A 3 year benefit period is a good option, too, if you are trying to make the policy more affordable but still shield from the main risk.

2)    Elimination period – The elimination period is essentially the deductible of your Long Term Care Insurance policy. The elimination period signifies how many days of care you must receive before your insurance benefits kick in. You usually have the option to choose between 0 and 180 days. 90 days is the most common choice because most people can afford to pay for 90 days of care without making any huge changes to their lifestyle. Once the 90 days are up and you are still in need of care, you will begin to receive your benefits from the policy. The elimination period, like most deductibles, has a big impact on how much your policy costs. If you think you can afford to pay for care for longer, you may want to lengthen the elimination period to help shave off some cost off of your premium rates.

3)    Daily benefit amount – The daily benefit amount indicates how much monetary value of care you will receive every day. The average daily cost of care varies by geographical region and city, so it’s crucial to research how much care costs in your area before deciding on your specific daily benefit amount. The average daily benefit amount is $150 per day, but it is significantly more expensive in the Northeast and on the West coast.

Familiarizing yourself with the moving parts of a Long Term Care Insurance policy can help you decide what kind of policy you want and how much you are going to pay for that plan. Other factors that influence cost are your age and your health, so buying when you are younger and still in good health is always the best option. The best time to purchase a policy is when you are in your 50s. Waiting until your 60s will cost you significantly more and can possibly rule out your chances of qualifying for a policy, depending on your health.

To learn more about Long Term Care Insurance and how to know whether or not a policy is right for you, click here.

Consider Long Term Care Insurance for Your Aging Parents

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Too often, we get calls from panicked people who are looking for help for their aging parents. Most of the time, the calls sound something like this: “My mother had a stroke last week and the doctors say she will need long term care for at least several months – How can I apply for coverage for her care?”

Don’t Wait Too Long

Unfortunately, we have to break the news to these children that it is too late to apply for coverage. Once a medical or health problem like stroke, a bad fall, or Alzheimer’s diagnosis has already occurred, there is no chance of qualifying for Long Term Care Insurance. It makes sense because there is no question of risk at that point, and insurance is all about risk. Once the risk has become 100%, it would be bad business for a company to write a policy for someone who already needs care.

Since those individuals who need long term care but didn’t plan ahead for that type of situation are unable to qualify for a policy, there are a couple of different routes they may take. They might turn to a family member for care, they might spend their own assets on care, or if they have already spent through their assets on care or don’t have enough to cover the cost, they might enroll in Medicaid and receive care from the federal government. None of these three options are ideal for any one, which is why planning ahead for this kind of care is so crucial.

Start Thinking Early

If you are an adult with aging parents who haven’t yet considered how they will cover the cost of long term care should they need it, you can help them plan by looking into long term care coverage. By buying a policy, not only are you protecting their hard earned assets from the growing cost of care, but you are also helping ensure you won’t have to provide long term care for them down the road, which can disrupt your life and place a huge amount of guilt on your parents. Most parents don’t want to burden their children with their care, and Long Term Care Insurance can help them avoid that situation.

Policies don’t have to be frighteningly expensive. In fact, they can be quite affordable. It’s important to buy as early as possible, so don’t wait until your parents are close to needing care, because their chances of qualifying will be slim to none by that time. Because your parents may never actually use the policy, it’s vital to strike a good balance between benefits and cost.

What About You?

Working with an independent agent can help you find the policy that is right for your parents. While you’re at it, you might want to look for yourself, too! The best age to buy Long Term Care Insurance is in your early 50s, when you are still in good health and can therefore get lower premiums than if you bought later in life. To read more about who should buy Long Term Care Insurance, click here.