What is long-term care?  Long-term care is support and health services for persons who have lost the capacity for self-care due to illness or frailty.

What is long-term care?  Long-term care is support and health services for persons who have lost the capacity for self-care due to illness or frailty.

Who needs long term care insurance? A common misconception about long term care is that it is just for the elderly. Anyone of any age or occupation may need long term care at any time for any length of time. Age is not an issue with long term care.

When will I need long-term care? When you continuously need substantial assistance to perform 2 of the 6 activities of daily living. Those activities could be bathing, continence, dressing, eating and toileting. Or, when you require substantial supervision to protect yourself from threats to health and safety due to the presence of a cognitive impairment.

How long must I need care to be considered long-term? When a chronic illness has left you needing care for more than 90 days. 

What are the levels of long-term care? There are three levels of care that can be provided in an array of long-term care settings.

Custodial Care: is non-skilled care that is necessary due to a cognitive impairment or to assist you with your daily activities. 

Intermediate Care: the care provided by a registered nurse or other skilled nursing professional on an interim basis, not necessarily daily.

Skilled Care: the care provided by a doctor or registered nurse on a daily basis. This care is usually provided in a skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility.

Respite Care: short-term, limited services from home care to healthcare provided by outside agencies to provide the primary caregiver a break from the responsibilities of full-time eldercare. 

Where are these services provided? These services can be provided at home, a community based care environment or in a facility.

What other services are provided during a long-term illness? When a person is receiving care, the main caregiver may need time off from their duties. Respite care allows the caregiver to be away for several days or just hours to run errands. If you have a terminal illness and have less than 6 months to live, you may need Hospice Care.

What are the chances that I may need long-term care? Over 70% of people over age 65 will require some long-term care services at some point in their lives.

 Information provided by Senior Care Concepts and Guide to Long Term Care .

If you receive quotes from several highly rated insurers and yet find that the premiums are still too much to bear, there is no need to panic and assume that long-term care insurance costs too much. You may be able to adjust the benefit amounts of the original quotes to bring the premiums more in line with your expectations—and ensure an affordable policy.

Know the Costs of Long-term Care Where You Live

One way to lower premium costs is to make sure you know what the actual costs of care are in your area. There are many statistics used when discussing long-term care costs and often these are based on national averages. The actual cost of home care, assisted living facilities and nursing homes in your particular area may be much lower.

You can find out about local long-term care costs by either downloading the latest Genworth Cost of Care Guide or by calling a few local home care agencies and long-term care facilities to ask for comparison rates.

Adjust Your Benefit Period

Another way to lower long-term care insurance premiums is to use a shorter benefit period. Many consumers feel that unlimited benefits are necessary for good coverage. A recent study published by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance in their 2009 Sourcebook revealed that only eight percent of those who buy a three-year benefit period exhaust the policy and still need care. Only a little over one percent of those with a five-year benefit period will see their claims closed due to policy exhaustion. This means that lowering the benefit period can be a practical way to lower insurance costs without sacrificing vital coverage.

Information provided by Gilbert Guide