What Does Long-Term Care Insurance Cover?

If you’re looking into long-term care insurance, you’ll need to know exactly what long-term care insurance covers. Long-term care includes many services designed to meet our health and personal care needs when we need help taking care of ourselves. Oftentimes, it’s because we’re getting older. Sometimes, it’s because we have a chronic condition or disability. 

Long-term care planning is important for all of us. Today, we’re going to review exactly what long-term care health insurance covers so you can decide if it’s a good addition to your insurance portfolio.

What Does Long-Term Care Cover?

Let’s take a deeper dive into what exactly long-term care, and the insurance associated with it, covers.

Assistance with Activities of Daily Living

Activities of daily living, otherwise known as ADLs, are basic personal tasks that most people can do every day without assistance. This includes bathing, getting dressed, using the restroom, eating, and transferring to and from a bed or chair. It can also include some homemaker services like laundry, shopping, and meal preparation.

Nursing and Therapeutic Care

Nursing and therapeutic care is usually provided by healthcare professionals and involves several services, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. Physical therapy helps people recover from injuries and deal with chronic conditions that affect mobility. Occupational therapy helps people improve their ability to perform tasks in their living and working environments. Finally, speech therapy helps to improve people’s speech and swallowing.

Specialized Care

Some individuals require specialized care for things like Alzheimer’s, dementia, or hospice services. Tailored long-term care may come in the form of programs for people with cognitive impairments or care to provide comfort for those who are terminally ill.

What Does Long-Term Care Not Cover?

You shouldn’t expect to cover all expenses that you’ll need along with long-term care. While it does provide extensive services, there are some things that are generally not covered.

Medical care, like those associated with surgical procedures, prescriptions, and doctor’s visits, won’t be covered under your long-term care insurance. Instead, those will be applied to your other health insurance plan, like Medicare.

Most policies also do not cover 24-hour care in your home unless you’ve purchased a large enough policy. Remember, there will be a daily or monthly limit on how much you’ll be reimbursed for.

Lastly, you cannot use a long-term health care insurance plan to pay for personal comfort or convenience items like TVs, phones, or meals for your whole family.

Of course, you should look at the specifics of a policy before enrolling. No two policies are alike, so you’ll need to spend time reading the limitations of your plan. Taking a few minutes to read the policy will help you avoid unexpected costs in the future.

The agents at Local Medicare Specialists are here to help you understand long-term care insurance, as well as any health insurance related to Medicare. We’re happy to review your current plans, and give you a quote for long-term care insurance when you’re ready. Find a local insurance agent in Arizona and schedule your consultation today.