Thinking that you are too young, can mean you avoid getting the protection provided by nursing home insurance plans. Some of us feel that it is only for people your parents’ age and that pre-retirement aged men and women shouldn’t worry about buying this important coverage.

There are several advantages to purchasing nursing home insurance at an early age. You may need to be in a facility long before you reach normal retirement age. You may develop a medical condition later in life that will keep you from buying a nursing home insurance policy if you wait too long. You be able to lock in a lower cost if you purchase a long term care policy at a younger age.

Planning ahead and purchasing a long term care policy can mean that not only are you prepared for your golden years, you are better protected today. Nursing home care is needed by people of all ages who are unable to live in the community due to a sickness or injury that causes disability.

Although it is true that one is more likely to need long term care the older one gets. Not everyone in a nursing home is elderly. Eighty-eight percent of the people in a nursing home are over age 65. This means that twelve percent of nursing home residents are not of retirement age.

Other types of insurance policies will not cover a nursing home stay or won’t cover it well. Medical insurance and disability insurance plans can provide some coverage, but the coverage can be quite limited.

A major medical insurance policy may cover you well in the hospital and the doctor’s office. However your policy probably only covers the first one hundred days in a skilled care nursing home. Most nursing home residents are in custodial care facilities or intermediate care facilities.

YOUR disability income policy may pay you a percentage of your lost wages when you are disabled. Even if this does give you enough income to cover the cost of your stay in a nursing home, you will have less income left over to cover your mortgage or any other expenses that you may have.

Long term care insurance requires applicants to be medically underwritten. This means that if you have a medical condition you may not qualify or you may be charged a higher premium. This means that if you are healthy today, you may qualify for a low cost nursing home insurance policy. However, since you cannot guarantee that you will just as healthy a year from now procrastination can mean that you will be unable to own this important protection.

The prices for long term care insurance policies tend to be based on the age you purchased your policy. This means that you can pay the price only forty-year-old applicants qualify for when you are in your sixties and seventies. This can mean a huge cost savings when your income is more limited.

If you add an inflation rider to your coverage, you may only not even need to supplement your coverage as you get older. An inflation rider is recommended for any long term care insurance purchase.

By: Alston Ballkcom