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Texas Nursing Homes and Texas Long Term Care Insurance - An Easy Guide
Long term care insurance covers the kind of medical and personal care services you need if you become incapable of caring for yourself alone because of chronic illness, disability, reduction in function, or cognitive impairment. Long term care differs from traditional medical care in that it does not treat symptoms or physical problems in an attempt to cure them. Instead, long term care is about helping a person function and manage day to day activities when the problems cannot be cured, so that they can maintain more of a normal lifestyle. Insuring your long term care creates protection in case your savings or income are not sufficient to pay for it. While you will have to pay premiums for most of your life, the money you spend on them can be only a fraction of the amount that routine long term care will cost. If you do not qualify for Medicaid or other public assistance, long term care insurance may be the solution to securing your future. Long term care premiums are least expensive if you secure them early, and rise as you get older or develop medical problems. For this reason, it's often a good idea to start shopping for long term care insurance when you're forty or fifty – before you need it. Unlike homeowners and other kinds of insurance, long term care coverage isn't standardized in Texas. This means that every policy can be just a little bit different, with wildly varying premiums. However, many companies in Texas do belong to licensing associations that will guarantee their quality of service. Look for one of these companies when you shop for long term care insurance. The state also mandates that you have a 30 day free look period at the beginning of your policy, in which you may cancel it without penalties. Generally, any long term care insurance policy you come across will cover residency in a nursing home. However, other policies will also cover assisted living, home care, and adult day facilities. Be sure to look over the contract for your long term care insurance before signing to be sure that you are getting the coverage you want. In Texas, the law requires that companies must offer long term care insurance that provides coverage when a policyholder cannot perform at least two of the six activities of daily living for at least ninety days. These daily activities are bathing, dressing, attendance to bodily elimination, transferring from location to location (bed to chair, etc), eating, and maintaining continence. No matter what event or illness causes the policyholder to lose functionality, the insurance company must provide coverage, even if the duration of the loss will be short, such as a wheelchair confinement after surgery. As long as the policyholder has lost function for more than ninety days, Texas law requires that coverage be extended. The Texas department of insurance states that nursing home costs should range from $30,000 to around $50,000 per year, depending on rates and services. This can come to more than $100 per day. Be sure that your long term care insurance can cover these kinds of expenses. Nursing homes are the costliest option for long term care, because of the close supervision they entail. Cheaper options for those who still retain some functionality include assisted living and home care by a friend or relative.
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