Q. What is individual long-term care insurance?
A. Individual long-term care is the kind of care that you would need to help perform daily activities if you had an ongoing illness or disability.
Q. What kind of illness or disability?
A. Long-term care includes a wide range of services for problems resulting from a degenerative condition (Parkinson's, stroke, etc.), a prolonged illness like cancer or a cognitive disorder like Alzheimer's Disease.
Q. Is this a group policy?
A. No. This program is being offered to Cultural Alliance members on an individual basis.
Q. Who is the insurance carrier for the plan?
A. You have a choice of three insurance companies.
Q. How long can I receive benefits?
A. You can choose benefit periods of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 years or for life.
Q. Doesn't my medical insurance cover long-term care?
A. Individual long-term care is not necessarily medical care but rather "custodial care." Custodial care involves providing individual assistance with activities of daily living or supervision of someone who is cognitively impaired.
Q. So this kind of care is not provided by a hospital?
A. Long-term care isn't provided in a hospital, nor is it intended to cure you. It is not acute care. It is chronic care that you might need for the rest of your life.
Q. So where are these services provided?
A. Long-term care services can be received in your own home, at a nursing home or other long-term care facility.
Q. Doesn't Medicare cover long-term care?
A. In most cases it will not. Medicare, primarily for individuals over 65, generally pays limited amounts for skilled care following a hospital stay.
Q. How limited?
A. It does not cover custodial care which assists people with the activities of daily living over a long period of time - usually 90 days or more.
Q. How about Medicaid?
A. Medicaid limits the number of choices the individual has on the type of care received, and you qualify only if you are impoverished.
Q. I'm not that old, so why do I need long-term care insurance?
A. Actually, the odds are that you will need long-term care at some point in your life, and maybe sooner than you think.
Q. And exactly what are the odds that I will need long term care before age 65?
A. About 40% of all people currently receiving long-term care services are ages 18 to 64. They may have been in a car accident, slipped in the shower, had a heart attack, got cancer or developed a degenerative disease. These things can happen at any age.
Q. Are long-term care services really all that expensive?
A. They can be very expensive. More than half of the people who enter a nursing home will stay at least one year. And one year in a nursing home, for example, currently averages $40,000 a year and can exceed $100,000 annually in some parts of the country. Even home care is very expensive.
Q. How do people normally pay for the cost of long-term care?
A. For the average American, there are only 3 ways to pay for long-term care: (1) Cash, (2) Welfare, or (3) Individual long-term care insurance.
Q. When should I buy long-term care insurance?
A. The older you are, the greater your chances of one day needing long-term care services. But the older you are, the higher the premiums. So buy it while you are still insurable and before illness, accident or disability strikes.
Q. Is individual long-term care insurance expensive?
A. Depends on how old you are. Like most health and life insurance policies, premiums are lower if you buy them when you're younger. But at any age, long-term care insurance is a bargain compared to the astronomical cost of the care and the peace of mind it provides.
Q. Who can I call to get answers to my questions?
A. Prior to your enrollment, you can Vicki Devlin.
Q. How do I enroll in the plan?
A. Just fill out the online questionnaire or Steve Leshner and you will receive an information package to review.