ADVERTISER

What’s new in long-term care INSURANCE

By Bill Kumpf

Because most people desire to stay in their own home as long as possible, the long-term care insurance industry has designed policies to accommodate this wish in recent years. These policy benefits include:
• Home health care visits to help with the activities of daily living (transferring, bathing, dressing, toileting, eating and continence)
• Homemaker services (cooking, cleaning, laundry)
• Skilled care visits (nursing, rehabilitative and therapeutic care)
• Home modification benefit (such as a ramp and widening of doors for access of a wheelchair; changes to bathroom and kitchen; stair lift; therapeutic equipment)
Of course, policies continue to cover traditional care in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, adult day care centers and
HospiceCare when home care is no longer felt to be adequate for the individual.
Along with new types of policies, another change in the long-term insurance business is the age at which people purchase long-term care insurance. Over the last 22 years, the average age of long-term care insurance purchasers has dropped, industry-wide, from age 66 to 56.
complete story