When Should I Buy Long-Term Health Care Insurance? 
Stand alone long term care insurance policies can be very expensive and generally are not a fixed premium so may well go up over time . When you purchase long term care as a rider on a whole life policy you will get the lowest premium rate for it that is available . So really then the best time to buy long term insurance is when you 're buying a whole life policy . If you already have a whole life policy without the LTC rider , you could either buy an additional policy or exchange your current policy for a new one and add the LTC rider . 