My parents have been making payments on long-term care policies for 20 years. I'm skeptical of the policies. Does anyone have experience using them? Was it hard to get the insurance company to pay out? Were there lots of exclusions? Was the coverage adequate? Thanks in advance.
Over the years they paid $94,000 in premiums. Each.
My Dad was receiving benefits for 6 weeks before he passed away. Think about that. $94k .. received $3500 in benefits.
My Mo has been receiving benefits since Sept 1st. The policy max is 325,000 in lifetime pay out. At the daily max of $200 ... it will last just 4.5 years. Had they invested that money at a meager .05 percent...it would be $127,000 today...each. MOm would still have $124,000 of Dads ...and $127,000 of her own. Or.. $251,000.
BUT.. the rules to ever receive any benefit at all are very hard to comply with. If the elder cannot walk...nope..no benefit payments. Elder MUST meet these criteria. Cannot feed themself, cannot get in and out of bed themself, cannot shower themself, cannot toilet themself. BUT...this policy pays nothing for cost of in facility care. So..how far does $200 per day go when dealing with someone who basically must have 24/7 care?
No..invest the money. Do not ever touch it until you need it for your own care. Far, far better off
ImageIMP, so sorry your situation is such an emotional and logistical mess, and that mom has lost her judgement in assessing your paramount concern for her and would rather have someone to blame for her predicament than an ongoing loving relationship. You do most likely need an eldercare attorney to see what is possible for home care support if you try to go that route, and how you can get Medicaid by any route if that becomes the only way to afford in-home or facility care she needs. The other resource is your Area Agency on Aging, and you may simply want to go around and look at other facilities and ask them what they can do; I'm suprised yours cannot accept private pay, that's unusual. You can also use an assisted living locator service such as A Place For Mom or any other; they will have a somewhat more limited repertoire of facilities who will agree to pay some fees or advertise with them. Finally - just my $0.02 - the current facility social worker should be offering you more help and support - both practically and emotionally- than you are getting. Why they assume we are "OK" and know what we ought to do next is beyond me when this is such totally new territory for the vast majority of us who enter it.
Their Primary Doctor was my first resource and he had a Home Health Care Agency come out to do an evaluation. I believe that with so much fraud, Insurance companies need to take precautions against false claims But at the same time, If a Policy Holder truly meets certain requirements , They will pay the benefit.
I mentioned keeping my parents in their own home. I also learned that with the LTC Benefit, We had a better selection of Facilities should we need to go that route.