No one wants to think they might someday be an invalid or may need help dressing themselves or bathing themselves or preparing or eating food by themselves – but according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, right around half of all Nevada residents who reach the age of 65 will find themselves needing long term care at some point in their life. That is why it is important that you start right now to find the best rates on long term care insurance in Nevada.

Long term care can refer to many things, anything from 24-hour round-the-clock care in a private nursing home, to having a health care worker come to your home a few times each week to help with cleaning and shopping – or it could be something in between. Long term care can be needed for years, or it can be for a shorter period, such as caused by an accident.

If you are counting on Medicare to take care of your long term health care, think again. Medicare has virtually no provisions for long term health care. It’s true that Nevada’s Medicaid program does have some provisions for long term health care, but even these provisions are difficult and time-consuming to qualify for and the quality of care that is provided is debatable – but what isn’t debatable is that in order to qualify for long term care in Nevada you must be totally impoverished and all decision-making and control of your care is taken out of your hands and placed in the hands of others.

The only real answer is to have your own long term health care insurance. Such insurance is not free, but there are ways in which you can keep the cost of your monthly premiums at a level you can afford.

First, get your long term care insurance policy sooner rather than later. The younger you are – as young as 40 years old – when you take out your policy, the lower your premiums will be.

If you smoke it’s time to quit. Smokers pay a lot more in premiums than non-smokers.

If you are overweight, let this be your reason for losing weight – and mean it this time. Joining a weight-management program may help to reduce your premiums – and actually losing weight can definitely make a difference.

Decide what kind of a dollar cap – if any – you want on your coverage. Many policies have a lifetime cap on the dollar amount of benefits they will pay out or they may have a weekly, monthly or yearly cap on benefits. Your premiums will be adjusted up or down according to the total amount of money the insurance is potentially on the line for.

Long term care insurance policies have a provision called the Elimination Period. This is merely insurance-speak for a deductible on your policy. Depending on how much money you are willing to spend out of your own resources on your own long term care before asking for the insurance company to pay anything, your monthly premium can be adjusted up or down. The more you are willing to spend (the longer the Elimination Period) the lower your premium will be.

Keep in mind, too, that since your policy benefits will (hopefully) not be used for quite some time, it may be wise to buy a policy with a built-in inflation adjustor so that by the time you need your benefits they will still be in line with current prices for care.

Finally, get on line and make several head-to-head comparisons of long term care packages and prices with several different insurance carriers until you find the best rates on long term care insurance in Nevada.

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