Long Term Nursing Care Insurance

Today, you're healthy. But what about tomorrow? What if you or your spouse become physically or mentally incapacitated? Long term care could be required, including custodial care either in your own home or a long term care facility.

Genworth Life Insurance Company has provided long term care insurance protection to hundreds of thousands of people across the nation.

Consider long term care insurance to help protect the savings you've spent a lifetime building and to help maintain your financial independence. It can make a lot of sense for you and your family.

Long term care insurance has become an important consideration for everyone's financial plan due to the increasing costs of long term care services.

Long term care addresses a wide range of long term care and supportive services for people who may have cognitive impairment or who are unable to accomplish certain activities of daily living over an extended period of time. These can include activities such as bathing, continence, dressing, eating, toileting, and transferring.

Long term care services can be provided in a variety of settings, including your home, assisted care facilities or nursing homes; and it can be very expensive.

Some Options:

Self-insure. This means you would pay-as-you-go and use your own assets to pay for required long term care. The risk is that this money you've worked for all of your life—your savings and investments nest egg—could be depleted due to the high costs of long term care.

Rely on care from friends and family members. This involves many complications, including their time, their skills, their physical strength, their financial ability to care for you, the emotional toll on both the caregiver and the care receiver, and the challenge of geographic distances.

Fortunately, there are options like long term care insurance policies that can help protect you.

A long term care insurance policy is a contract between you and an insurance company. In exchange for premium payments you make, the company promises to reimburse you for the cost of covered long term care and services when you need them.

Term care insurance helps cover the cost of care and services for people who have an inability to perform certain or severe cognitive impairment.

A long term care insurance plan can help protect your financial independence and help preserve your quality of life by reimbursing you for the cost of covered care and services (subject to policy benefit limits) you receive:

• In your own home, if appropriate.
  
• In a qualified long term care facility you select.

Long term care insurance is not as expensive as many people think. Many options can be customized to fit your specific needs and budget. The actual cost of your coverage will depend on a number of factors including:

• Your age when you apply
  
• Your health when you apply
  
• The length of time during which covered benefits would be available
  
• Specific policy features, benefits and optional benefits you select
  
• Any discounts you are eligible for

Many people have found effective ways to pay the insurance premium, including:

• Interest from general savings
  
• Dividends
  
• Annuity income
  
  

Tip:

Many companies will consider your actual age at the time of your application, while others may base their rates on age nearest birthday. So if you have a birthday coming up, now is the time to apply to "save your age" which can save you premiums over the lifetime of the policy!

Many people think that they will save money on premiums if they just wait to buy long-term care insurance. This is not necessarily true. The longer you wait, the more you may pay in premiums over your lifetime.

Each year that you wait:

• Can increase the annual cost of the insurance because you should buy a higher daily benefit due to the fact that the cost of long-term care has gone up.
  
• You are a year older so your premium rate may increase.
  
• You are at risk in the event you have a health change and cannot qualify for coverage.

Yes! That's why it's so important that you look into long term care insurance coverage while you're still healthy and independent.

Good health may qualify you for a preferred health discount on the premiums for the insurance, while poor health or certain medical and cognitive conditions may disqualify you from getting long term care coverage at all.