Top 7 Tips to Help You Save Money on Long Term Care Insurance

Most people around the world are of the opinion that LTC, or Long-Term Care insurance, is quite expensive. This is right, to some extent. However, if you take care of certain things and plan your investment in time, you can save a lot of money on LTC insurance.

The following are the top 7 methods that will help you cut down the cost of your long-term care insurance:

1. Look for State-Offered LTC Programs

   If your state offers LTC insurance packages, you do not have to worry about the possible exhaustion of your insurance coverage even if you have consumed all the benefits. If you have purchased a policy from a state-offered long-term care partnership program and have used all the benefits, you only have to spend out-of-pocket money on enough insurance to cover your assets.

2. Make Your Home More Accessible for Old Age, Long Term Illness/Injury, etc.

   Known as “aging in place”, this involves making changes in your home to make it easy for you to live in it during old age, but will also help in case you face a long-term injury or illness while you’re still young. These changes include adding wide doors to allow the passage of a wheelchair, or reducing the size of your house so that you do not have to bother about using stairs or walking too far to get from one room to another.

   These methods can help you save money and reduce overall costs because if you make your home more accessible, you might not need assistance and if you do not take assistance, you do not have to pay for it.

3. Invest in Long Term Care Insurance Early On

   If you buy the LTC insurance policy while you’re young, fit and healthy, you will have to pay lower premiums. Another advantage of starting early is because of the inevitable concern that your health is most likely to deteriorate as you get older. Health issues increase the value of the premium and reduce the chances of getting a policy in the first place. If you start early, you can avoid such problems and save money on expenses you cannot anticipate now.

4. Talk to your Benefits Department

   If you cannot get a state-offered policy due to any reason, waste no time in contacting your employer for LTC benefits. This needs to be done even more quickly if you have health issues. Employer-sponsored group policies are cheap, portable and may contain services for your relatives too.

5. Be Careful While Choosing

   While choosing the policy, check the waiting period after which the insurance is likely to pay the benefits. Go for longer waiting periods or less daily benefits, as both of these measures can reduce the premium amount.

6. Check the Inflation Protection of Your Policy

   You can also drop some coverage in order to save money. For example, inflation protection is an expensive rider which if dropped can reduce the premium to almost half. Look into such changes to make the policy more convenient, suitable, as well as affordable for you.

7. Think about sharing it with your Partner

   Shared LTC policies between you and your spouse can be very cost-effective. You get a range of benefits with little expenses. For instance, if you purchase a 10-year policy, you will get a total 20 years, which would be shared between you and your partner. Also, if someone uses their half up to, let’s say 5 years, the other still gets the remaining 15 years of coverage.