John Hancock Leading Edge Long Term Care Insurance - Pt. 3

“Leading Edge” - Part 3

This John Hancock product also offers an alternative to the costly “lifetime benefit” offered by most other companies. The new benefit is called “5 Years Plus $1 Million”, and it is designed to cover you if you need many years of care. Check all your options with your Buyer’s Advocate.

How does it work?

Let’s say you’ve received 5 year’s worth of benefits, but you still need long term care. That’s when the extra One Million Dollars kicks in. The policy is less expensive than a lifetime policy, because the insurance company doesn’t have to pay for an entire lifetime (perhaps decades) of long term care. This benefit is more affordable than lifetime coverage, as it limits the insurance carrier’s risk.

Reports show that the most people don’t need more than 3 years worth of long term care…once they are in a skilled nursing home. The caveat here is that most folks are cared for by relatives until they are “too far gone”. Of course they don’t need many years of nursing home care, as they have already received years worth of care from their family.

But what if you don’t have family to help you? What if you need to go into an assisted living facility before you need a skilled nursing facility? You may need many years of care if you have a stroke, get Parkinson’s[tag], [tag]Multiple Sclerosis[tag], [tag]Alzheimer’s[tag] or debilitating [tag]arthritis. For example, the average stay in a care facility for someone who has Alzheimer’s is about 8 years. Clay has needed 5 years of MS care already, and we don’t see an end to that any time soon (hopefully).

Let’s face it, ALL insurance is a gamble. We buy it hoping that we won’t need it. And most of us try to get away with paying the least amount of money as possible for the most and best protection. The question is: Will you need a lifetime of long term care or will you be like many people and only require a few years? Or somewhere in between?

If I were a gambling person (which I’m not) 5 years + a million bucks + included inflation protection sounds like the best of all LTCi worlds. And it may be - IF the cost of long term care/medical inflation doesn’t increase above the CPI at an even higher rate than it has and IF you die before you use up your extra million dollars’ worth of long term care.

Also, the amount of time you will receive benefits from that extra million dollars will largely depend upon the cost of actual care in the area you are located. What is the cost of long term care in your area? Nursing home costs alone vary drastically from state to state, as well as from rural to urban areas. If you went into a nursing home today, that million dollars would only last you about 51/4 years in Alaska. That may be enough time or it may not. Therein lies the gamble, because you don’t have a crystal ball, and you just cannot judge how much care may be needed.

Would you like to get your free comparison quote now from the Buyer’s Advocate?

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