Long-Term Care Insurance

Most long-term care services begin at home with the help of family or friends until the burden of caregiving becomes too much of an emotional and financial hardship. The next step is generally to hire a paid caregiver to help with ADLs and IADLs. Unfortunately, many people cannot afford to pay for such care even when it is delivered by the unskilled, unlicensed, or unsupervised. More costly care by paid professionals is simply out of the question for most. Given the extraordinarily high cost of long-term care services, it is not surprising that few people are able to amass these sums. Fortunately, there is an option: long-term care insurance.

In exchange for the payment of premiums, long-term care insurance (LTCI) policies promise to pay benefits for custodial, intermediate, and/or skilled care. Like other types of insurance coverages, LTCI contracts can be very complex. Even though policies have become more standardized in recent years, options, riders, elimination periods, benefit amounts, and other aspects of coverage can make the long-term care insurance picture difficult to fully comprehend.

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