Many companies have left the long-term care insurance market. Rising health care costs, plus the invention of the hybrid long-term care/life insurance policy has resulted in many companies bailing out of long-term care insurance. If you still want a long-term care policy, Transamerica offers a fairly affordable policy with some nice features. It’s a solid offer and called TransCare II.
How Much does Transamerica Long-Term Care Insurance Cost?
For our purposes, our quote was for a 50-year old female non-smoker in excellent health.
- Annual premium: $1,902
- Daily benefit: $200
- Total benefit: $292,000
- Cash benefit alternative: 33%
- Elimination period: 90 days
- Rate guarantee: Five years
- Return of Premium: To age 67
Annual premium of $1,902 is not cheap. However, assuming that you will pay premiums until you pass away at 90 years old, which is 40 years of premium payment. Total premiums will be $76,000. And if you receive benefits, it can be up to $292,000, which is 3.8X total premiums. Not a bad ROI for the investment.
If you compare with hybrid long-term care insurance, this is actually much cheaper. The cheapest hybrid long-term care insurance policy can cost up to $8,000 in annual premiums for 10 years of premium payments for similar benefits.
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There are a number of policy riders you can choose from:
- Inflation protection
- Shared care
- Return of premium
- Waiver of premium
- Alternate care
- Nonforfeiture benefit
Daily benefit amounts range from $50 to $500, and you can choose your elimination period, from 0 to 365 days.
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Great Features of Transamerica Long-Term Care Insurance
Several nice features of this policy are included. The premium is guaranteed for five years, which is great. Another nice feature is the cash benefit alternative. Normally, this is a reimbursement plan, meaning you collect your receipts for care and Transamerica pays you back. However, you can select the cash benefit instead, which gives you 33% of the total daily benefit in cash. You can use this money to pay for a home health care aid.
One thing to be aware of with Transamerica is that there is not a lot of information about their long-term care insurance on the website. You will have to call an agent to discuss your needs. On the other hand, the premium is pretty reasonable and you can even get a Return of Premium option in case you change your mind.
Transamerica will pay for:
- Nursing home care
- Home health care
- Adult day care
- Hospice care
It’s a relatively straightforward, affordable policy with some nice features. Life all long-term care insurance, you have to have difficulty with two out of six activities of daily living or be diagnosed with cognitive decline in order to receive benefits (after your elimination period).
One thing people considering Transamerica long-term care insurance is that customer reviews do not speak highly of them. On the BBB’s website, there are 344 complaints over the last three years, 82 in the last twelve months. However, the details of the complaints were unavailable. There are also 61 reviews, most of which are scathing. Of course, people usually go to the BBB to complain, not to praise, so we checked the NAIC as well. Here, you can select for specific types of insurance. Long-term care insurance by Transamerica got a complaint index of 1.31, which means somewhat more complaints than expected. The majority of these complaints revolve around an extremely slow response time and being denied claims. This holds true for the rest of their insurance products, by the way—they have more complaints than expected.
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Last Thoughts
Transamerica offers an affordable policy with some good features and customization. The only caveat is that customer reviews are not very flattering. Be careful and be sure to ask questions. There’s not that many long-term care insurance providers left, but be sure to shop around.