The Basics of Long Term Medical Care

Everybody gets old. This is an inevitable fact. However, only few individuals or families actually get ready for this later stage of life. By not preparing for the future, individuals, who find themselves already at the senior stage of life, are faced to learn quickly about the different available options for either their long term care or their long term medical care once they become disabled because of old age. Because of the lack of time for planning, these seniors would find that their finances are not enough to pay for all the long term care costs for the services that they require. More often than not, the lack of planning for the future is a result of not being informed and self-educated about the different long term care services or long term care coverage that different long term health care providers are offering. It is then important that individuals, while still at the productive stage in life, should start preparing for their future.

Medicare Long Term Care is one investment that working individuals should greatly consider. This government sanctioned social long term health insurance policy ensures that once an individual reaches the age of 65, Medicare would pay for some of the long term medical care of individuals. Generally, Medicare only pays a maximum stay of 100 days in a nursing home or a long term care facility if the elderly individual is prescribed by a physician to do so. However, it should be noted that Medicare would shoulder the full payment for the first 20 days that the long term care elderly is enrolled at a nursing home and would only give subsidize payment for the remaining 80 days.

Long term medical care should be differentiated from long term care which is non-medical in nature. Non-medical long term care generally refers to the care that would help meet the personal needs of an elderly. Mostly, long term care only considers the long term care services that are designed to assist an elderly individual with activities of daily living which includes dressing, bathing and meal preparation. This type of long term care is characterized by Medicare as "custodial care' and therefore, is not included in the long term medical care coverage which Medicare provides. Financing for the custodial care for the long term care elderly may be acquired through other private long term care health insurance companies such as MetLife Long Term Care and John Hancock Long Term Care.

Examples of long term medical care that Medicare covers include the admittance of an elderly individual into a long term care nursing home or any of the other long term care facilities for a required recuperation after a medical operation. However, Medicare may or may not pay for the long term care medication that is needed during the recuperation period.

Medicare assists individuals who are either elderly or who has been disabled by sickness in the early part of their lives. However, Medicare only pays for part of the long term medical care costs that would be incurred and does not pay for other long term care services. Fortunately, there are other private long term health care insurance companies around that could help. It is always a wise move for an individual to gather information and educate him/herself of what options are available for future long term care.