BeamaLife Blog

It’s no secret that people tend to live longer than the generations before them. As medical research advances, so does life expectancy and the day to day tasks life involves. There comes a point in almost everyone’s life where their bodies become less and less capable of taking care of themselves on their own and require assistance. For this, home care, nursing homes, and assisted living residents were created. But as the need for them grows, so do their costs. To help alleviate the escalating price of these long-term care providers there is long-term care insurance.

Long-term care insurance (LTCI) is for all people to use when they’re no longer able to independently perform basic activities of daily living—bathing, dressing, eating—due to illness, injury, or cognitive disorder. LTCI insures people of all ages and current condition and is for anyone who wants to know they can be taken care of when they need to be.

As the price for care increases people look for all means of alleviating the costs. Medicaid has strict financial eligibility requirements and will likely exhaust a chunk of your life savings to become eligible. Similarly, HMO’s, Medicare, and Medigap don’t pay at all for most long-term care. However, if you are between 40 and 84 years old and have significant assets you wish to protect, then you are the perfect candidate for LTCI. If you are also in good health, are insurable, and can afford to pay the premiums now and in the future, you are practically a shoe in.

LTCI works by the benefits being triggered by a physical or mental impairment, or by your doctor certifying long term care is necessary. Once triggered, the policy pays a selected amount of money per day, for a set period of time, based on the type of long-term care outlined in your policy.

When buying LTCI, make sure you shop around and read the policies carefully for benefits, exclusions, and provision as packages can differ considerably based on the company. Once you’ve found a few you like, make sure to research the ratings of the companies using A.M. Best, Moody’s, etc. to ensure that company is in a sound financial state. After all, you can’t be insured if the company isn’t around. That is exactly BeamaLife will do for you.

To ensure that you are taken care of should a day come when you can no longer perform day to day tasks independently, you should start early to find the right insurance as premiums are cheaper when you are younger. Know your policy and consult a financial advisor, attorney, or accountant for any questions as policies can be confusing.

Long term care insurance is becoming more and more necessary as people live longer. We are all thankful for modern medicine and its ability to cure disease and keep us and our loved ones on earth longer, but who’s going to care for them when they can’t care for themselves? If you can take them in, God bless you, but for most of us, LTCI can alleviate those expensive bills of a nice nursing home or assisted living residence where the ones we love most can be happy.