When Is The Right Time To Buy Long Term Care Insurance?

I don’t know.   But I do know the wrong time to buy: When you just felt chest pains for the third time, and rushed to the emergency room only to be told the reason for the pains could not be found.  When you just had your annual exam and questionable lab results were discovered.  When you have just been told that surgery will be needed within the next few years.  When you have been prescribed medication to help slow down memory loss.  When that strange disease you had never heard of is now in your daily thoughts.  When that last ski run of the day resulted in broken bones that may never heal correctly.  When your diabetes is no longer under good control.

Any of these events could happen to you in your twenties, or thirties, or forties,…or seventies.  These and numerous other bad things make you uninsurable.  So even if you want to buy protection against the high cost  ($81,000 per year in Metro-Denver) of needing long term care services, you cannot.  No insurance company will accept you.  Not at any price.

When is the right time to buy?  I cannot see around corners, so I don’t know when that runaway freight train called long term care is going to hit you.  The best answer I can offer is: Apply for (and hope you can still buy) long term care insurance when you first come to understand the enormous financial risk you and your family have been exposed to.  By the way, it is not only financial risk.  Family relationships always suffer when someone has to put their life on hold to take care of you because you haven’t done any planning.

Disclaimer: Actual policy language, rather than the contents of this eNewsletter always takes precedence.  Long term insurance policies vary from company to company & within the same company.  Raymond Smith, The Long Term Care Specialist, does not give legal or tax advice.  Consult your tax advisor or attorney for these matters.

 

© Raymond Smith, The Long Term Care Specialist, 2011