So what if you think you don’t have the funds to purchase a longterm care insurance policy? Perhaps you could consider a limited duration long term care insurance policy. Typically these policies can be used to keep the cost of long term care insurance affordable. According to the American Association of Long Term Care insurance in 2009, almost 1/3 of people buying individual policies purchased a 3-year benefit period policy.
Men with a 3-year policy who begin a claim on their policy at age 82 have a 12.4 % likelihood of outliving their benefits. Women who begin using their policy at age 82 have a 23.5% chance of outliving their benefits according to a consumer guide published by the industry trade association.
A policy that pays benefits for 3 years costs somewhere between 42% to 54% less than a policy that will pay for an unlimited number of years. It appears that the risk is smaller for men than for women. When considering a long term care insurance purchase perhaps less insurance can provide benefits sufficient to cover some, if not all of one’s health care costs.
An experienced insurance person should be able to discuss with you the cost-benefit analysis of any policy of interest to you.