It’s always pleasing to highlight good news! Recently, the legislature in New Jersey recently passed a new law that will offer seniors on Medicaid more long-term care options. By 2008, senior citizens living in New Jersey will have a choice in the type of long-term care they receive through Medicaid, under a law made by Governor Jon S. Corzine. The law provides “an extraordinary change in direction and policy in a way that makes sure our seniors have a choice,” said Corzine in a recently concluded AARP summit on long term care.

Currently, New Jersey spends $1.68 billion of its Medicaid long-term care budget on nursing home care, compared with $162 million on community-based care like assisted living facilities, home health care and adult day care. That means a lot of money will be going to skilled nursing facilities. The law will now help bridge the gap between money going to nursing homes versus money going to people in the community. “Rather than requiring that nursing homes be the first stop, now nursing homes will be the appropriate stop, if necessary,” said Dr. Fred Jacobs, state health commissioner for New Jersey.

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In a long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy, the elimination period is always referred to as the policy deductible. In many ways it is similar to the deductible used in major medical insurance policies. One significant difference is this: rather than a certain dollar amount that you will initially pay for your own care expenses, there is a specified number of days for which you will be responsible for your own homecare.

What are My Options?

Nowadays, there are only a few carriers that offer a zero day elimination period. The most common choices are 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days, although these periods can vary from one carrier to another. The choice of 180 or 365 days is most often made by those who have significant assets of their own. Selecting a longer period helps them keep the cost of LTCI extremely low. Even if one chooses a 90-day elimination period, the amount of funds put at risk is miniscule when compared to the asset protection afforded by the policy’s total pool of benefits.

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Hospice services are always available, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. There is always a nurse on call at night and on weekends. The nurse will then visit a patient as often and as long as necessary to make sure that there is quality care. Because of this wonderful service, many people are under the impression that hospice care is expensive, and yet they believe that they cannot afford such a treatment. However Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies cover hospice care and services. This would include, but is not limited to, medications, medical supplies, nursing care, home health aides and social services. In 1983, Congress established the Medicare Hospice Benefit, covered under Medicare Part A, to ensure that all beneficiaries could receive high-quality end-of-life senior care. In order to receive the Medicare Hospice Benefit, the patient must meet three key criteria.

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Long-term care insurance (LTCI) happen to be very much different from the other kinds of insurance. As a result, even the foundational features of these policies require taking some time to understand before making your final decision. However, what about all the other choices and features which are not built into the policy and requires you to pay extra to get them? In my opinion, LTCI policies are best kept simple. If you have already done researching on setting up the foundational features of the policy, you have already done 90% of the work in most cases. It’s a good idea to explore those other options if you feel that you can afford to spend more on your care, but you should also examine whether they are truly going to be cost-effective in your case. One good way to do this is to narrow down your selection to the two to three carriers that you feel most comfortable with and get quotes on a straightforward policy setup with no extras or options added.

Next, add on the options that you may be interested in one at a time and get a new quote. This will tell you exactly how much extra you can expect to pay for these options. Once you have those figures it’s much easier to decide if the options you are considering are really worth pursuing further. Here is a list of some of the most popular options in LTCI or Long Term Care insurance policies:

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