Long-Term
Care Insurance
From the Leading Companies
We Provide The Personalized Service That
Our Clients Demand
From People Who Care
Serving Texas and California
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Ø LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE SHOPPER'S GUIDE
Who
should consider long term care insurance?
HOW MUCH DOES
LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE COST?
HOW DO I SHOP
FOR LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE?
Finding you
the best long-term care policy with a premium that you can afford:
Design a
policy to fit your needs.
Over 10 years of
personalized service.
Meeting with
you personally in Houston and all of the surrounding areas.
Meeting with you by phone for the rest of
Texas as well as California.
Click here to see some of the areas
that we serve.
We can cover all the details about
Long-Term Care Insurance over the phone.
Our approach is
educational: We will
not try to “sell” you a policy.
We want you to understand what the
coverage is and how much it costs.
From this information, you can make an
informed decision.
Determining whether you “need” long-term
care insurance is the first step. Long-term care insurance is not for everyone.
Helping you shop for a policy with an
affordable premium from the best possible company is where we can be very
valuable.
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Long term care is the care
people need when they can’t perform the tasks of ordinary living independently
-- things like bathing, dressing, toileting, continence, eating, and moving
around. Or, the person may need care and supervision due to a cognitive
impairment such as Alzheimer's disease.
First, we want to wish you
the best of health and well-being for your entire lifetime. Our wish is that none of us ever need
long-term care. Foresight is your greatest
ally when making plans about long-term care.
Contemplating losing your independence is an uncomfortable subject, but
it is better approached before the need than in hindsight.
The problem with long-term
care insurance is that you have to buy long-term care insurance while you are
still relatively healthy and don’t know whether or not you will ever use the
insurance. According to the Wall Street
Journal (10/22/01), we do know that a little more than 50% of all people will
need some kind of care before they die.
This is why it is helpful to ask yourself now, while you are still
independent, “How will I feel if I need long-term care and I cannot get the
coverage?” (There are products for those who have already lost their
independence, but few people can afford them and they are not as cost
effective.)
This said, honestly ask
yourself these questions:
·
If I had a stroke
tomorrow or was diagnosed with a chronic illness like Alzheimer’s or if I had a
serious auto accident and I could no longer care for myself, what would I do?
·
Can my spouse or
children care for me?
·
Would I be able
to stay in my home?
·
How would I pay
for the care?
Long-term Care Insurance can
address these issues for some people.
Here’s how it works.
Most people are surprised when they find
out that regular health Insurance (employee benefits, private health insurance,
etc.), Medicare, and Medicare supplemental policies provide no coverage for the
vast majority of long-term care expenses beyond three months. (See
this Medicare link) This is why
so many people deplete their savings paying for home care, assisted living,
nursing home care, and Alzheimer’s care.
They think they are covered and when they get diagnosed with a chronic
illness (MS, Parkinson’s, ALS, Alzheimer, etc) or have an accident, it’s too
late to get coverage.
If you have very little in savings
(impoverished by government standards), then, at this time, Medicaid (a government
program) will pay for a nursing home and extremely limited coverage for home
care. The key to receiving aid
from the government is that you must first “impoverish” yourself according to
your state’s guidelines. This is call
Medicaid (Please see
this Medicaid link for more information).
Long-term care insurance is mostly for
people who want to either protect their savings and investments or they don’t want
to rely on their family for their care. It’s really about choice,
control, and quality of care. Some would prefer to stay at home rather
than living in a state funded nursing home.
Long-term care insurance pays for home
care, assisted living, nursing homes, Alzheimer’s facilities and more. In addition,
the insurance provides an expert care coordinator who helps with the
coordination of claims paperwork and helps to develop a plan of care in
addition to making sure that you are safe in your home if that is where you
would like to receive care.
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Who should consider long term care insurance?
Everyone except (a) those without means who can
qualify for Medicaid; (b) those whose lifestyles would be seriously compromised
by the monthly premiums, or (c) those wealthy enough to self-insure.
To answer this, you must have some forethought:
“I’m never
going to loose my independence, so why would I buy long-term care insurance?”
Unfortunately, the
truth is that we do not know who will need care and who will not. I’m sure that Christopher Reeves and Ronald
Reagan never expected to need care. Both
were very strong men at one time. The
truth is that we do not really know the answer to this question. For the sake of researching the topic, assume
that at some point you may need care and think of how it will impact you and
your family financially and emotionally.
“Why can’t I
pay for long-term care with my savings?”
You can. This is a good
question because health insurance and Medicare are not going to pay for your
long-term care. The cost of care is
variable depending on the illness or accident, and depending on your
location. Alzheimer’s and accidents can
be very long lasting and very expensive ($50,000 + a year).
Generally speaking, care in
The Woodlands Texas, is more expensive than in
If you are a couple, then you
must consider what care would cost for the both of you. Do you want to spend this money from your
savings?
You can call me to help you
with the cost of care in your area or you can call a few local home care
agencies or nursing homes to get an idea of the cost of long-term care in your
area. (Click here for
detailed “Cost of Long-Term Care” information.)
The important point here is that it’s
“your money” that is going to pay for the cost of long-term care without
insurance. Many people find out the hard way that
regular health insurance, Medicare, and Medicare Supplemental policies do not
pay for the vast majority of long-term care expenses.
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“I’m worth
more than one million dollars; do I really need this insurance?”
Our very wealthy clients usually get
long-term care insurance, not because they need it, but because it makes sense. They can
afford the insurance and the annual premium is a lot better than the hundreds
of thousands they would have to spend without the insurance if they needed
care. Also, many of Our very wealthy
clients want the infrastructure and “peace of mind” that comes with a policy. If they get ill they want their loved ones to
be able to pick up the phone and get expert guidance. They want to be able to make one phone call
to a professional rather than having to crisis manage the situation alone.
“I’m ok with
depleting my assets and relying on the state or my family members for my care.”
Some people are fine
depleting their savings and relying on the state or family members for their
care. This is a choice some do
make. There are many consequences to
this choice that should be considered.
Here are just a few:
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If you become
dependent on the state for your care, what will be the quality of your
care? What choices are you giving up?
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How will depleting your assets effect the surviving
spouse? This is especially important if the surviving
spouse lives another ten or fifteen years.
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Can your son,
daughter, or spouse take care of you?
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Do you want your
son, daughter, or spouse to take care of you?
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Is your family physically and emotionally able to
bath, clean, feed, dress, and lift you for possibly years?
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Do you want to
spend your children’s inheritance on home care or assisted living or on a
nursing home?
These are just some of the
many tough questions that you may want to ask yourself. Some people say to me very nonchalantly, “My
family will take care of me.” Before you
make this choice, really think about it.
Your family may have to give up their lives for a long time. Please give some honest contemplation to the
option of turning over to your family the responsibility of caring for you in
the future. The good new is that you
really don’t have to make this choice.
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How much does long-term care insurance cost? Affordability is important.
At this point you probably
know if long-term care insurance is something that you are interested in. The next obvious question is, “How
much is this going to cost me?”
The younger you are, the less expensive
long term care insurance is. The cost
depends on your health and age when buying the policy. Figure
anywhere from $50 to $400 a month depending on age, health, and what you want
your policy to cover. Most people near
60 years of age in decent health can purchase very good policies for around
$200 a month.
If you are very wealthy and
can absorb some of the risk yourself, we will design a policy to fit your needs. If you are 60 and on a fixed income with very
little savings, we will design a policy that is affordable AND doesn’t force
you to have a lot of out-of-pocket expenses if you need care. If you live in
You can always call us or click here for a quote and/or advice on purchasing a
policy. We sell the best carriers in the
industry and like to meet with our clients personally or by phone to explain
their options. If you’d like to do everything
by email, that is fine too.
Our clients are satisfied because we
take good and honest care of them. We want our clients to understand what they
are buying.
Please be aware that long-term care
insurance policies are very different between companies. There is a big difference between an “ok”
long-term care policy and a great one. This is where we can be very helpful.
How do I shop for long-term
care insurance?
Because the issues
surrounding long-term care have such great implications, both emotional and
financial, and the fact that most people are with their long-term care
insurance company for the rest of their life, we believe that you should
consult with a specialist. We
suggest that you sit down with someone who knows long-term care insurance very
well and one who also represents the best carriers in the industry. They should take the time to explain the
coverage to you in detail so you are not surprised in fifteen or twenty years
when you need the policy. In the future
you will be grateful for your forethought. Please call us if you have any
questions.
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About The Long Term
Care Specialist and his team
With a team of
underwriters and policy specialists from some of the top companies in the
world, we can provide the level of personalized service that long term care
clients demand. Allen Astin, the long
term care specialist, trained with the country’s top long term care agents in
the Long Term Care Division of GE Financial.
By 2005 the The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance
Allen is now a
trusted agent of families, financial advisors, and attorneys because he
simplifies this complex issue and also because he sells only well respected companies
like John Hancock, MetLife, Allianz, United of Omaha, Prudential, and others.
Allen is licensed in Texas and California and is also an advisor and mentor to
other agents in the industry. He enjoys life in Conroe, Texas with his wife and
two daughters.
Areas
that we serve:
All of
The Woodlands
Spring TX
Panhandle
Morton
Los Angeles, CA
Santa Monica,
CA
San Diego, CA
Malibu, CA
West Los
Angeles
Santa Cruz, CA
San Francisco,
CA
California