The Best Long-Term Care Policies

The Best Long-Term Care Policies

In the course of writing Long-Term Care: A dollar and Sense Guide, Susan Polniaszek examined nearly 1,000 policies. Here are her favorites:

Amex: The former Fireman’s Fund offers a traditional policy focusing on nursing home care with an option for home health care. It also offers an integrated policy, which means you can buy four years of care and apply it to either nursing home or home health care, with a managed care option that increases your benefits if you use the company’s providers.

Continental casualty company: The Classic plan lives up to its name as a traditional nursing home plan. A second, Premium plan allows you to buy a pool of days instead of the usual pool of money. Your benefits are limited by the number of days you need care instead of the care’s cost.

John Hancock: A higher standard of admittance than most. You need to have help with two of the five activities of daily living before receiving benefits. A policy debuting in late 1995 will allow spouses to draw on each other’s pool of funds.

Best Long-Term Care Policy. Photo by Elena (a park in down-town Toronto).

Lincoln National: This life insurance company offers a traditional policy as well as a policy that allows you combine your life insurance and long-term care policies. It is expensive, but guarantees you or your family will see some return on your investment.

The Travelers Insurance Company: Their pool of funds policy mostly follows the traditional model.

Unum: This life insurance company markets an expensive benefit that allows your family members to be paid for home health care. Most plans require a licensed professional to receive the benefits, but UNUM allows spouses or children to be compensated.