The option for guaranteed purchase helps to keep costs down, but it is important to watch for varying provisions.
The latest new options in long term care insurance are now providing people in their fifties and sixties with the opportunity to lower the expense associated with their coverage by hundreds of dollars every year.
This may help people to be able to buy the coverage they need at a price that can fit within their budgets.
Jesse Slome, the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) director “The Guaranteed Purchase Option (GPO) allows more people to buy coverage they can afford.” Slome also added that “You lock in meeting the required good health qualifications along with the advantage of lower rates, plus you still have the ability to increase coverage in future years — an extremely attractive combination.”
With this type of plan, long term care insurance could be maintained for far less than its traditional high cost.
For example, a married couple at the age of sixty years would be able to pay under $100 per month, each, in order to maintain long term care insurance of about $165,000, according to the 2013 Long Term Care Insurance Price Index from the AALTCI.
Slome also pointed out that in order to add the GPO option to the long term care insurance, it would increase the monthly premiums by only five dollars per person. This small and highly affordable amount will make it possible to add a great deal more value to the policy in case they should ever want to increase the amount of coverage in the future, particularly if their health should change.
The director feels that the best approach to planning with long term care insurance is “good, better, best.” This means that by purchasing good coverage today, the majority of the costs to be faced will be covered right away and will help to generate savings over time with an LTC policy. This helps to reverse the historical trend in which the majority of the policies added an inflation growth option that was typically 5 percent in the 90’s. However, the recommendation today is for only 3 percent as the environment has changed since that time.