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Health Insurance For Long Term CareHealth Insurance for long-term care is a type of private insurance policy that offers a wide range of options that can help pay for many types of long-term health care including both skilled and non-skilled care. As the options are as varied as the premiums, before buying this type of health insurance, the advice of an insurance agent of a financial advisor should be sought. An example of coverage choices can range from only providing for nursing home care to nursing home care that also includes a range of services such as an adult day care center, assisted living, medical equipment, and formal and informal home care. Naturally, the greater the coverage, the higher the premium, which is the reason it may be better to buy at a younger age when premiums are lower. However, it can be bought at any age and if this is something you’re considering doing while still at a relatively young working age look into buying a group policy through an employer that would allow coverage either to continue or convert after employment ends. Besides the savings on premiums, another advantage of purchasing health care insurance for long-term care is that most long-term care insurance policies offer tax benefits. These are called Tax-Qualified, or TQ, policies and can include the entire premium for a TQ policy as a medical deduction on an itemized Federal income tax form. A couple of Federal programs that one needs to be aware of when considering health insurance for long term care are the FLTCIP program and the PLTC program. However, currently the first program only applies to Federal Uniformed Services, and the second program is currently only available in four states. The first, the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program or FLTCIP program is specific to Federal members and retired members of the Federal Uniformed Services. It allows for them, their spouses, and other qualified relatives the opportunity to buy long-term care insurance at a group rate. To learn more about this program, contact the Office of Personnel Management’s or OPM. The second program, the Partnership for Long-Term Care Program (PLTC) is operated as a partnership between Medicaid and long-term care health insurers to provide an alternative to spending down or transferring assets. . The four states that are Partnership States have focused on creating affordable products that encourage people to self-insure, enable purchasers to provide better protection against impoverishment, and reduce long-term care costs for the Medicaid program.. Hopefully, other states will join New York, California, Indiana, and Connecticut, in adopting this program. Of course, it would do no harm to contact one’s legislative and congressional representatives, to urge them to consider the program for the residents of their states. Whatever you decide regarding health insurance either providing for or not providing for long term care, be certain that you are dealing with a company that is licensed in your state, and if you aren’t sure, call your State Insurance Department. |