Question 1: Can I purchase a policy which provides a full refund in the event I do not use the benefits?
Answer: Yes.
Question 2: What is the perfect age for purchasing long-term care insurance?
Answer: The perfect age is when you are under age 85, healthy, and without any signs of requiring long-term care.
Question 3: Can I purchase a policy that provides benefits for the rest of my life, but only requires me to pay a limited number of premiums?
Answer: Policies exist that can be paid up with one premium payment, five annual premium payments, 60 monthly premium payments, etc.
Question 4: Can I purchase a policy which provides home health care, assisted living care, and nursing home care, or a combination?
Answer: Yes.
Question 5: Can my policy be owned by a third party trust?
Answer: Yes.
Question 6: If I purchase a policy which provides five years worth of benefits, when do the benefits start?
Answer: When you need home health, assisted living, or nursing home care.
Question 7: With respect to past policies, what is the biggest problem associated to them?
Answer: The policy does not provide sufficient benefits to meet current costs. In other words the policy pays $50 per day for the remainder of the insured's lifetime.
Question 8: Should my policy include an inflation rider?
Answer: Yes. This is particularly true if you are less than 75 years of age. The inflation rider will annually increase the daily benefit by 5% per year from the date of purchase. Thus a policy that commences paying at $150 per day in year one will increase to $165.37 in year three.
Question 9: If a husband and wife each apply for a policy, and the husband is not able to obtain a policy because of poor health, should the wife continue with her purchase?
Answer: Yes. The statistics show that in a husband and wife situation, the husband will easily qualify for Medicaid, thus a policy is not a necessity for him. Additionally, following the husband's death, the wife will have no one to care for her and will need the benefits of a long-term care insurance policy.
Question 10: Why should I purchase a long-term care insurance policy when Medicaid pays for the bulk of long-term care expenses?
Answer: Medicaid does not typically pay for any home health care services and/or assisted living costs. Secondly, Medicaid has strict financial requirements on qualifying for benefits.
