You may be able to buy a long term care insurance policy that covers more than just one person, or more than one kind of long-term care service. The benefits provided by these policies are often called “pooled benefits.”
One type of pooled benefit covers more than one person, such as a husband and wife, or two partners, or two or more related adults. This type of benefit is sometimes called a “joint policy” or a “joint benefit.” This pooled benefit usually has a total benefit that applies to all of the individuals covered by the policy. If one of the covered individuals collects benefits, that amount is subtracted from the total policy benefit.
For example, if a husband and wife have a policy that provides $150,000 in total long-term care benefits, and the husband uses $25,000 in benefits from the policy, $125,000 would be left to pay benefits for either the husband or the wife, or both.
Another kind of “pooled benefit” provides a total dollar amount that can be used for various long-term care services. These policies pay a daily, weekly, or monthly dollar limit for one or more covered services. You can combine benefits in ways that best meet your needs. This gives you more control over how your benefits are spent. For example, you may choose to combine the benefit for home care with the benefit for community-based care instead of using the nursing home benefit. Some policies provide both types of pooled benefits. Other policies provide one or the other.
