Long
Term Care Insurance is insurance provided from the private
sector. Its purpose is to cover the care for people with chronic
health conditions that will have little or no foreseeable
improvement. Chronic health conditions can begin at any age.
Most often long term care insurance is purchased to cover
the health costs associated with aging without depending on
personal assets or government assistance. Though long term
care insurance has been around in various forms since the
early days of Medicare, today’s policies have evolved
to meet needs and are quite different from their predecessors.
Most plans now cover a broad range of services including
skilled nursing care, custodial nursing care, home health
care, adult day care and hospice. Assisted living in home
is by far the long term care of choice by most elderly and
their families. Unlike other kinds of insurance, long term
care insurance pays for personal care services, even if
no other kind of care is needed.
Almost 7 million Americans have turned to private long
term care plans to protect their assets.13
America’s long term care problem will grow even more
as the huge baby-boomer generation gets older. The government
is unlikely to ever have the resources to start a new entitlement
program for long term care. Because of these reasons, many
individuals are beginning to realize that private insurance
is the best way to shield themselves from financial ruin
and give them the ability to choose their care before they
become incapacitated.
