Update/Reminder on Long Term Care Insurance Features

Note number 6 below - this is something I believe we have not discussed before.  I am going to check our policies now to see if this is relevant.  I think we would have noticed if an exclusion was included, but best to check to make sure.

If you're interested in long-term-care insurance, you should look into the coverage before you need it -- perhaps when you are in your 40s, 50s or early 60s. If you wait too long the premium costs will be un-economical.  Choose a highly rated insurance company. Shop around and review the policies for the following features:

1. The benefit amount should be adequate. Most policies pay a specified amount per day, so you will have to pay the difference. 
2. Benefits should increase with inflation. You may not receive benefits for many years, so it's important to make sure that the amount increases with inflation. 
3. Covered services should include skilled care, intermediate care, custodial care, home health care, and adult day care. 
4. There should not be a requirement that you must first be hospitalized to receive benefits. There should also be no requirement that you must first receive skilled nursing home care to receive intermediate or custodial care, or that you must first receive nursing home care to receive home care. 
5. Benefits should be payable when you can't perform two or three activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, eating, walking, transferring from a bed to a chair, using the bathroom, or remaining continent. Another condition that should qualify is cognitive impairment. 
6. Specific coverage should exist for Alzheimer's disease and other organic-based mental illness. Some policies exclude these conditions.
7. The policy should be guaranteed renewable, meaning the policy can't be canceled due to age or deterioration in health.
8. Select a reasonable waiting period and a benefit period you are comfortable with. The longer you wait before benefits begin, the lower your premiums.

Michael