Long-term care insurance with pre-existing conditions?

The only useful items in your post is really that your grandmother is still alive. It appears that they own a house and do not rent. As others have stated, you can't buy LTC insurance after you need it.

The typical cost for a nursing home is $5000 to $6000 a month. The issue is whether there are any assets that can be used to pay for it. The state will look at the assets in granddad's name, grandma's name and any that were transferred to other family members as gifts in the past 5 years.

If granddad has assets, he pays. If granddad doesn't have assets, the rest of us pay. The hassle is that some of those assets are probably jointly owned with grandma. The state will put a claim on your dad's estate to get paid back. This allows grandma to stay in the house, keep a car, etc. until she dies. Your mother and you get nothing unless there is money left over.

There is no affordable 24/7 nursing facility. It costs $5000 a month and up for nursing care. He can consider selling some assets like a house to pay for care. Once his money runs out, the nursing home will get him eligible for Medicaid. He sounds terminal, so ask his doctor if he has long to live and if not, he might get hospice care and Medicare covers that. He cannot buy any LTC insurance because insurance has to be purchased BEFORE he has medical problems or they wont be covered.

It's too late to buy private long term care coverage, you have to buy it BEFORE you need it.

If he has enough assets that he doesn't qualify for Medicaid, the family is going to have to spend them to pay for private nursing home care. When he's poor enough, and has spent all his money, THEN he can reapply for Medicaid, and go to a Medicaid nursing home.

You'll probably notice a huge difference between a private pay nursing home and a Medicaid nursing home.

And I'd like to point out that now is the time that your PARENTS should be thinking about buying their own long term care coverage - 55 is usually the perfect age, a combination of remaining good health and reasonable rates. Otherwise, you're going to be in the exact same position AGAIN in 20 more years.

You can get quotes in just a few minutes at http://help.instant-insurance.net/-aoveoDJ282

RE Long-term care insurance with pre-existing conditions?

My grandfather, who is 72 years old, needs round-the-clock care that has now exceeded our

capabilities.

He suffers from pre-existing bad to severe dementia. He's suspicious, falls frequently, very forgetful, suffers from sundowning. He just "doesn't know what to do" and he even struggles with basic life functions.

He also suffers from lymphatic cancer that metastasized to his lung and chest cavity, as well as squamous cell carcinoma that is very resistant to all his previous treatment and has spread to open wounds on his arm.

Because all of his lymph nodes were removed, his lymphatic fluid constantly pools in that arm and swells to hugely abnormal size. Therefore he has to wear a sleeve to keep it in place, which is painful for him to put on and is time-consuming for his caregiver. He also is supposed to keep his arm elevated, but refuses because of his dementia.

He is mean and hateful at times and insists that we are trying to kill him and is always demanding that his caregiver (my aging and stressed grandmother) remain at his side at all times, or he grows suspicious about her fidelity. He has hallucinations.

We moved in with them to help her take care of him, but my school work (homeschooled, mainly to take care of them) and my mother's commute to work have also taken a toll on us. We hated to think about it, but we finally resolved that he belongs as a permanent resident in a home. The biggest problem is the astronomical cost which we can't just "chip together", as it was never there in the first place. We did research on nursing home coverage and found out about long term care coverage.

We found out some basic things like it is best to purchase at a young age. Unfortunately, my grandmother was never educated on insurance and doesn't possess significant life insurance nor anything like long-term care, and he doesn't qualify for the little help Medicaid offers.

Although he suffers from cancer, he has reached the end of his treatment. His cancer was too resistant to all prospective radiation and chemotherapy, and the anti-body treatment that he tried, he had a massive allergic reaction to. He has awful pain all the time and is on a rotated regimen of extra strength ibeproufen and high dosage morphine, with a high grade fentanyl pain patch.

So, although cancer plays a part in his insurance qualification in name, apart from being administered his medication and sleeve, his cancer is not the main concern as far as his care/treatment goes. We have had to accept that he is going to die sooner or later and are trying to find the best final preparations. Bentonite clay seems to be drawing out some of the side effects of his radiation (after which his cancer got worse), and so may prolong his life. The short prognosis was 2-9 months.

His dementia have become exhausting and endless. There's simply nothing we can do anymore. He's on prescription for Aricept for the dementia and we give him melatonin for the sundowning, which seems to have a calming effect.

Sorry for the long piece, but we're all very distressed about this and I felt that I had to give a thorough explanation of his ailme

It's too late for long term care insurance. You should talk with the doctors about your options. Some things that are possibilities:

- medicaid paying for the nursing home. If he owns a house or other assets, you need to know how these will be handled when he dies (your mom might lose her house).

- if his life expectancy is less than 6 months, he should be eligible for hospice care.

Insurance is for things that begin to be needed after getting insurance.

There is no insurance for things that are already needed when the insurance is first gotten.

Insurance won't help in this situation, because you did not get the insurance before the need for care began.

To get the quality of care, respect, and dignity that you won't, you will have to pay for the care yourselves, using only your own money, without using insurance, because you did not try to get insurance until after the the need for care began.

If you are not willing to pay for the care yourself, using only your own money, without using insurance, then there is only one remaining option: First, he pays for the care, himself, using only his own money, without using insurance, until he has nothing left. When all of his money has been spent, he goes on medicaid, which is insurance from the government, but it's lousy, and will only pay for care somewhere cheap, not the type of place that you want.

The only way to get insurance to pay for somewhere good is to buy the insurance before the need for care begins.

At - QUOTESTOCOVER.INFO- you can get quotes in just a few minutes

RE #EANF#

My grandfather, who is 72 years old, needs round-the-clock care that has now exceeded our capabilities. He suffers from pre-existing bad to severe dementia. He's suspicious, ...show more

Let this site do the work for you: COVERAGE-FINDER.NET just submit your info and get the best rates.

Get insurance quotes

I recommend you to visit this website where you can get quotes from different companies: http://cheap-insure.info/index.html?src=3YAqRV5boV...

RE :Long-term care insurance with pre-existing conditions?

My grandfather, who is 72 years old, needs round-the-clock care that has now exceeded our

capabilities.

He suffers from pre-existing bad to severe dementia. He's suspicious, falls frequently, very forgetful, suffers from sundowning. He just "doesn't know what to do" and he even struggles with basic life functions.

He also suffers from lymphatic cancer that metastasized to his lung and chest cavity, as well as squamous cell carcinoma that is very resistant to all his previous treatment and has spread to open wounds on his arm.

Because all of his lymph nodes were removed, his lymphatic fluid constantly pools in that arm and swells to hugely abnormal size. Therefore he has to wear a sleeve to keep it in place, which is painful for him to put on and is time-consuming for his caregiver. He also is supposed to keep his arm elevated, but refuses because of his dementia.

He is mean and hateful at times and insists that we are trying to kill him and is always demanding that his caregiver (my aging and stressed grandmother) remain at his side at all times, or he grows suspicious about her fidelity. He has hallucinations.

We moved in with them to help her take care of him, but my school work (homeschooled, mainly to take care of them) and my mother's commute to work have also taken a toll on us. We hated to think about it, but we finally resolved that he belongs as a permanent resident in a home. The biggest problem is the astronomical cost which we can't just "chip together", as it was never there in the first place. We did research on nursing home coverage and found out about long term care coverage.

We found out some basic things like it is best to purchase at a young age. Unfortunately, my grandmother was never educated on insurance and doesn't possess significant life insurance nor anything like long-term care, and he doesn't qualify for the little help Medicaid offers.

Although he suffers from cancer, he has reached the end of his treatment. His cancer was too resistant to all prospective radiation and chemotherapy, and the anti-body treatment that he tried, he had a massive allergic reaction to. He has awful pain all the time and is on a rotated regimen of extra strength ibeproufen and high dosage morphine, with a high grade fentanyl pain patch.

So, although cancer plays a part in his insurance qualification in name, apart from being administered his medication and sleeve, his cancer is not the main concern as far as his care/treatment goes. We have had to accept that he is going to die sooner or later and are trying to find the best final preparations. Bentonite clay seems to be drawing out some of the side effects of his radiation (after which his cancer got worse), and so may prolong his life. The short prognosis was 2-9 months.

His dementia have become exhausting and endless. There's simply nothing we can do anymore. He's on prescription for Aricept for the dementia and we give him melatonin for the sundowning, which seems to have a calming effect.

Sorry for the long piece, but we're all very distressed about this and I felt that I had to give a thorough explanation of his ailments and treatment.

Our needs are a long-term stay in a nursing home facility covering skilled care for his dementia, activities of daily living, ect. We also hope that he can be treated with respect and dignity. We need affordable prices like anyone else in the middle class, not astronomical rates. We also need a policy that would either cover pre-existing without penalizing for it or not asking health questions, ect., as my grandfather is obviously in need of care we can't offer him.

The only policy we have even brushed upon is Physicians Mutual. We don't know anything about it really, and we don't know where to look for anything else. Everything seems to lead to a dead end online when we need a solution.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Follow 11 answers