Pulmonary Embolism Support Group

By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.

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Long-Term Care Insurance?

TossNTurn
TossNTurn
My husband and I recently applied for long-term care insurance. They accepted him, but turned me down based on my asthma and history of depression and anxiety. Really, the depression disappeared a while ago and the anxiety is pretty recent (since the PEs) but I'm still on anti-depression/anti-anxiety meds.

Oddly, they didn't ask about blood clot issues at all, which I consider the really major health issue at this point.

I considered re-applying by filling out the "long" version of the application but they wanted me to list every doctor I had seen in the last five years.

FIVE years??? Seriously? The number of doctors I have seen in the last nine months (since getting my PEs) would probably run two pages at this point.

We'll probably have to wait a few more years until a few of these docs fall off the radar and the anxiety is gone. But still, I don't know if they'll take me even then.

Anyone else applied for and gotten long-term care insurance? Or been turned down and re-applied? Just curious what other folks have experienced with this type of insurance application.
rmb
rmb
Hey Toss. I don't know a lot about long term insurance but I assume they underwrite it similar to a health or life insurance policy. They're underwriting for the risk and my guess is that they're asking specific health related condition questions based on overall claims experience for those. And yeah, 5 years can be a standard look back period for a lot of insurance type policies.
rmb
rmb
And by overall claims experience, I mean not you specifically but a pool of people with those similar health issues/claims. Not sure if that's how it works for long term care insurance but that could be the case.
More2be
More2be
In general, insurance companies do not like to provide indemnity for any bad things that may, by some distant chance, actually happen. Therefore it takes very little to raise any red flags. The fact alone that someone is actually looking for insurance, whether death insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, or long-term care insurance, is reason enough for them to gain suspicion. They would rather send agents out marketing policies to the young and low-risk, among whom insurance is usually the last thing on their minds.
rmb
rmb
Underwriting insurance policies is based on a lot of factors, like actuarial formulas, experience, pricing etc, so it's a little more complex than people think. Insurance is the business of risk assessment. But I won't bore you with that, since it doesn't change the fact that none of us are probably eligible for certain types of insurance based on our history.

Toss, shop around a bit. There may be other options out there.
TossNTurn
TossNTurn
Wish I could shop around. My father-in-law and husband did the shopping and settled on this one and are trying to factor me in under a "spouse" clause. I think my husband may be somehow under the umbrella of my FILs policy too...

Anyway, I think we do fall into the category of "young" (he's 40, I'm 35) to be shopping for this type of insurance. But we're cautious, plan-ahead types of folks.

I'm really thinking I'll just have to wait a few years to be added to the policy. Don't think I'll need it in those five years! (Fingers crossed.)
ultratodd
ultratodd
I don't know if this is relevant but I'll put it out there since you talked about long term planning.

Neither my wife nor I have long term care insurance nor do we care to get it. Why?

It's relatively expensive, we both worked and we both saved or are saving for that kind of expense. But we have a different situation than most people today. We have defined benefit pensions. Our pensions can not be wiped out due to an illness.

There is another thing to think about now with the changes in health insurance. There is no lifetime cap on health insurance benefits. That should help should you self insure which is what my wife and I have done.

If you don't have a defined benefit plan, or you are limited to one income, or both, this may not be a viable option. It's just something else to consider as you look at your options.
deleted_user
deleted_user
hello Toss,

Have you tried with other insurers? that's because most LTCi insurers are really strict with underwriting to ensure the policyholders are relatively healthy, and they do this to protect the pool of money.

Maybe this could help you understand LTCi better: http://www.completelongtermcare.com/resources/
deleted_user
deleted_user
I'm curious to find out what you learn.
My parents got long term insurance in their 60's, and my dad has hypertension. (I think they even got it just before he had his heart valve replacement). I was surprised that they got it b/c they weren't healthy, but they also didn't go to the doctor very often, so maybe there just wasn't the paper trail there is for us.
Keep us in the loop on what you discover.
I just renewed my ins at work, and I think I have it... Is it different when it's provided by your employer?
KS
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