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Home » Does Long-Term Care Insurance Actually Work?

Does Long-Term Care Insurance Actually Work?

July 25, 2017 by Ellen LaPlante

Burlington Medicaid lawyers help seniors to make sure they can cover the costs of long term care when they require this care either in their homes or in a nursing home setting. Long term care costs can be astronomically expensive, often resulting in seniors who require care spending their entire life savings in just a few months. Burlington Medicaid lawyers

Medicare and the majority of private health insurance policies provide no coverage at all for long term care or nursing home care outside of limited coverage for skilled medical services, which means those who simply need custodial care and help with day-to-day activities are on their own for picking up the bills. This means you need some kind of plan to afford care if you don’t want your entire life savings wasted on nursing home bills.

Unsworth LaPlante, PLLC will help you to explore the different options that could allow you to pay for long term care. For most seniors, the options include long-term care insurance or qualifying for Medicaid coverage, and long-term care is not always a viable option. To find out more about the ways you can pay for care and about how Burlington Medicaid lawyers can help you to qualify for Medicaid coverage when you need it, give us a call today.

Is Long-Term Care Insurance Effective?

AARP provided a comprehensive summary of what you need to know if you are interested in purchasing long term care insurance and the summary shows many possible problems that exist with this type of policy. For example, some of the issues that could make long term care insurance ineffective in meeting your needs include:

  • High premiums: Premiums tend to rise over time. As you get older, you may become unable to afford premiums. This would mean you could be forced to drop coverage when your chances of going into a nursing home are highest, even after paying premiums for years.
  • Daily limits: Your policy may cap you at a set amount of coverage for different kinds of services. For example, your policy may limit you to $100 per day in coverage for nursing home care. In many cases, the limits are too low to actually pay for the kind of care you require.
  • Qualification requirements: Long-term care policies require benefit triggers before the policy will begin to pay benefits. Sometimes, the triggers are defined too narrowly. For example, your policy may mandate you will be covered only if you’re physically unable to perform certain activities of daily living. The problem is, you may be physically ableto do the activities but dementia may prevent you from knowing how to do them – and the policy may not cover that.
  • Waiting periods: When you purchase a policy, a certain length of time typically must pass before you actually become eligible to receive coverage for nursing home care or long term care.

Because there are so many possible reasons why a long term care policy may not be effective, it is important to carefully research any policy you are thinking of purchasing to ensure that the purchase of the policy actually makes sense and to ensure you will get the coverage that you need. If long-term care insurance is not a viable option for you, qualifying for Medicaid could be your only way to get long term care paid for, other than paying out-of-pocket, so our firm will assist you in making a plan to qualify for Medicaid will protecting as much of your wealth as possible.

Getting Help from Burlington Medicaid Lawyers

Unsworth LaPlante, PLLC has helped many people to keep their assets safe and secure while still becoming eligible for means-tested Medicaid benefits. You could be forced to spend your life savings and impoverish yourself before Medicaid kicks in, since there are resource limits for Medicaid coverage. If you don’t want this to happen to you, it is best to talk with Burlington Medicaid lawyers as early as you can before you actually need your care costs paid for so you can put a comprehensive asset protection in place.

To find out more about how our firm helps you to make a Medicaid plan to qualify for Medicaid coverage and get nursing home care paid for without spending your life savings on care, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (802) 879-7133 or contact us online to get personalized one-on-one advice on paying for a nursing home or long term care in your home without losing the chance to leave a legacy for loved ones.

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Ellen LaPlante
Ellen LaPlante
Ellen LaPlante is an attorney whose mission is to provide clients with guidance in Estate Planning, Elder Law, and Medicaid Preparation. She is barred in Vermont and New York. Ellen helps clients put together unique estate plans, including assistance with Trusts, Wills, Powers of Attorney, and Advance Directives. She also works with clients on Medicaid Planning and qualifying for Medicaid assistance.
Ellen LaPlante
Latest posts by Ellen LaPlante (see all)
  • How to Apply for Senior Medicaid in Vermont - December 11, 2022
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