Long Term Care Insurance

It might be hard to imagine now, but chances are you’ll need some help taking care of yourself later in life. The big question is: How will you pay for it?

Long-term care refers to a host of services that aren’t covered by regular health insurance. This includes assistance with routine daily activities, like bathing, dressing or getting in and out of bed.

Regular health insurance doesn’t cover long-term care. And Medicare won’t come to the rescue, either; it covers only short nursing home stays or limited amounts of home health care when you require skilled nursing or rehab. It does not pay for custodial care, which includes supervision and help with day-to-day tasks.

People buy long-term care insurance for two reasons: to protect savings and to give you more choices for care.

If you don’t have insurance to cover long-term care, you’ll have to pay for it yourself. You can get help through Medicaid, the federal and state health insurance program for those with low incomes, but only after you’ve exhausted most of your savings.

Long-term care costs can deplete savings very quickly.  From the Genworth 2018 Cost of Care Survey, the average cost for an Assisted Living Facility is $4,000 per month and for Nursing Home Care, $8,365 per month for a private room.

The more money you can spend, the better the quality of care you can get.  If you must rely on Medicaid, your choices will be limited to the nursing homes that accept payments from the government program.