and called the company it's with, Lincoln National Life Insurance.
My understanding was wrong. It DOES cover other long term care expenses including adult day, care, home health care, assisted living, hospice services, alternative care services, as well as nursing home care.
To qualify for reimbursement I'd need to be unable to perform 2 of these 6 activities of daily living: eating, dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring, continence and or have severe cognitive impairment, i.e. dementia. I'd need a doctor's note verifying I need help and then bills could be sent directly to the insurance.
While at this point in my life (I'm an incredibly healthy 71 year old) I can't even begin to imagine being unable to feed or dress myself or any of the others listed, it's a huge relief to know that I can get a significant reimbursement of those costs. It makes me feel a whole lot better about the end years of my life.
Oh, and if I use the maximum benefit when I start, it will last six years. Longer, obviously, if I only need to tap it at a lesser amount.
Here's the most important thing: if I never use a penny of it, there's a decent death benefit, significantly more than what I paid for it seven years ago. And even if I use up the entire amount available to pay for the above services, there's a residual death benefit that will be more than enough to have me cremated and hold some kind of memorial service.
So yeah, I'm of the opinion that a long term care policy can be a good thing.
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