International Coverage Question

[yankee466]

Other than pure cash plans or cash alternative, does anyone know of a traditional re-imbursement plan other than Medamerica's FlexCare that has no reduction in ANY form of international coverage? Everyone else I know of reduces it by a percentage, or nursing home only, or first x years......

Thanks

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

I don't beleive it exists...............

 

[yankee466]

I don't beleive it exists...............

MedAmerica claims to be the only one with 100% international coverage with FlexCare....so I was just checking to see if anyone knew different. The lady I have wanting to possibly go back to England one day will be pleased with that option.

She said you can be taken care of with socialized medicine in England, but the care was terrible.....hence the need for LTC options.

 

[yankee466]

Maybe I was not paying attention, but I was told recently that the cash alternative with Mutual/United of Omaha is NOT available for any form of international coverage.....whereas Prudential will let you use the 40% for the entire pool of money if you choose. Pru is a lot more expensive than MoO. I assumed you can use the cash on either plan as you see fit.

Mutual gives you the one year international indemnity benefit and then you are basically done.

Anyone else trip into this, disagree with this, or am I the last to know? I have so few clients with any concern on living internationally.....I do not memorize that part of the policies.

I was working with a client who thinks he may want to retire in South America somewhere....and we did not want to go the MedAmerica route.

 

[billberry12]

Pru is not always more expensive than MoO. I just saved a 65 year old single female about $13 a month, and she got restoration of benefits and a little more cash alternative in the deal. LTC 3 2011 ( $ 299.36) vs MoO mutual care ($312.51) at application time. Then MoO rated her a class 1, thus a premium of $ 390.64. I am still waiting on the Pru underwriting decision, but if Pru approves her standard, she will be a very happy client.

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

If someone is seriously considering LTC coverage out of the country, MedAmerica's Simplicity product is the only policy to offer word-wide coverage with no restrictions.

Mutual & Pru and others with 35% & 40% cash is not the answer.

 

[yankee466]

If someone is seriously considering LTC coverage out of the country, MedAmerica's Simplicity product is the only policy to offer word-wide coverage with no restrictions.

Mutual & Pru and others with 35% & 40% cash is not the answer.

Understand.......their FlexCare product with the cash option actually can be a better value. I am just in a "sticky" situation where MA is not an option in this case.....so trying to come up with the best choice among available carriers. Pru will allow the 40% cash for international......but I was disappointed to learn that the Omaha's did not work the same. The MA plans are just a lot more expensive too.....so the client has to decide on what is best with no guarantee that they will ever move.

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

so the client has to decide on what is best with no guarantee that they will ever move.

Yup........
That's always the case. NY does not yet have Flex Care, so I can't comment.

But, if someone is seriously considering moving to downtown Uganda for the rest of their lives, it doesn't make much sense to purchase & pay premiums for $200/day in benefits and only receive $80/day (40%)

 

[Mr_Ed]

Yup........
That's always the case. NY does not yet have Flex Care, so I can't comment.

But, if someone is seriously considering moving to downtown Uganda for the rest of their lives, it doesn't make much sense to purchase & pay premiums for $200/day in benefits and only receive $80/day (40%)

good point, Arthur. That's why the reduced cash benefit options make sense. International care is most probably going to cost less than care in the U.S.

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

That's why the reduced cash benefit options make sense. International care is most probably going to cost less than care in the U.S.

Correct it will, but the point is you're paying premiums for $200/day and then only receiving 35% or 40%... $70 or $80/day. Does it make sense to pay premiums for a $200/day policy and at claim time only receive a fraction of that amount?

Transamerica's policy has a cash-alternative benefit of 30% but it will only pay for a maximum of 1 year out of the country regardless of the benefit period chosen.

Been paying premiums for a policy with an Unlimited benefit period? Great, leave the US and they'll pay you 30% of the benefit amount for 365 days.

Again, for anyone that will knowingly be leaving the US, the only policy that makes sense to me is MedAmerica's Simplicity which will pay a 100% cash benefit with no restrictions on either the benefit amount or benefit period.