Long-Term Care Insurance - What is Shared Care?

A shared care long-term care insurance policy can be a great way for couples to not only reduce the cost of their premiums but it can also give you more coverage, it gives you more value for to your coverage by combing two individual policies. It allows you and your spouse to split your long-term care benefits and use your spouses benefits when you have exhausted yours. Here is an example of how shared care works. Lets say you and your partner each have a 3 year benefit period and you have used up all of your 3 years of long-term care insurance benefits and you still need care. You will then be able to use your partner's long-term care benefits, some or all. Your partner will then have the remaining benefits that you don't use for him/her if they should need care.

Typically when one partner dies the surviving partner's benefits will be increased by the deceased partner's remaining benefits. For example, if you both have a 3 year long benefit period and your partner received care for 2 years and then passes away, your long-term care insurance benefit period will be 5 years. Premiums are typically reduced by the shared care benefit rider as well.

The shared care benefit costs about an additional 15% on a long-term care insurance policy, but this is typically cheaper than buying two separate policies with a longer benefit period and  there is a great chance that one of you will need long-term care services.

Shared care policies do differ from company to company. To learn more visit http://www.longtermcareinsuranceonly.com/long-term-care-insurance-quote.htm and complete the confidential form for some shared care comparison quotes.