California Long Term Care Insurance

Are you just beginning your investigation of long term care insurance options in California? If you answered yes, this article will be a good overview of individual long term care insurance in your state.

What is Long Term Care (LTC) Insurance?

Long term care is help given to individuals to assist them with daily living skills such as bathing, dressing, or eating. Individual of all ages can qualify for long term care. An accident, illness, head trauma or cognitive impairment like dementia, could happen to any of us, at any time in our lives. Typically, LTC needs increase with age. LTC insurance is an insurance policy you buy to help pay for these services.

In California, insurance companies must pay LTC benefits when you cannot perform two activities of daily living (such as bathing, dressing or eating) or you have a cognitive impairment serious enough to require supervision. This applies to those individuals that have a LTC insurance policy.

Long term care services can be provided in a person's home, assisted living facility or nursing home. The policies available in California refer to where the insurance benefits will be paid: Home care, Nursing Home and Residential Care Facility, and Comprehensive.

1. Home care policies cover care in your home or community setting only. Community setting refers to adult day health care, hospice, respite care and homemaker services.
2. Nursing and Residential Care Facility covers care in a nursing home or Residential Care Facility only. This includes room and board and services needed up to policy limits.
3. Comprehensive policies covers services rendered in homes, community settings, nursing home and residential care facilities alike, with the same rules applied.

How to Buy Long Term Care Insurance

The costs of long term care varies greatly depending on where your care is provided. It makes sense that care given at a nursing home would be more expensive than care provided in an individual's home. In fact,the national average cost of a nursing home room is over $70,000 per year as compared to the average cost of home care being $39,000.

Individuals can buy long term care insurance three different ways:
•As an individual
•As a member of a group or faith-based organization
•As an employee or family member of an employee

If you buy long term care insurance in California, it will meet current state requirements. If however, you buy this insurance through a national insurance company or group, it may not meet California's requirements. Make sure you ask whether your selected LTC policy will meet California's requirements, before purchasing the policy. Also, you may be wondering if your LTC policy purchased in California will be honored in other states. Generally speaking, yes. There may be a difference in opinions of where care will be given, but usually California laws and policies will be followed.

Costs of Long Term Care Insurance

You are probably wondering about costs of long term care insurance. The best way to get an idea of costs in your state would be to talk to a LTC qualified agent and get several online quotes. As with most health insurance policies, costs increase the older you get because the chance of you needing this care, increases. If you are younger, think of this insurance as an investment that you will contribute money to for the rest of your life. There are ways to reduce the costs of long term care.

Long term care insurance protects your assets and help you to maintain independence and quality of life. Think about it now, versus later.

Get several quotes now. Its fast, free and you are under no obligation to buy.

Related articles by Jim Westin:

http://jimwestin.hubpages.com/hub/Common-Misunderstanding-on-Long-Term-Care-Insurance

http://jimwestin.hubpages.com/hub/Florida-Long-Term-Care-Insurance

http://jimwestin.hubpages.com/hub/Texas-Long-Term-Care-Insurance