Long Term Care (LTC)

What is long term care insurance?

Long-Term Care Insurance is an insurance policy that pays a pre-specified daily amount ($x.xx per day) if the buyer needs long-term care at some point in the future (assisted living, nursing homes, or in home care).

Here is what Consumer Reports says about it:

Do you need long-term-care insurance?

If you can’t take care of yourself when you’re old, there are plenty of resources from which to choose: home-health services, adult day-care centers, assisted-living facilities, or nursing homes. Finding the money to pay for such help, however, presents a dilemma.

Right now, the average rate for a private room in a nursing home is $181 a day, or about $66,000 a year, according to a 2003 survey by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. If the room rates reflect current annual increases in nursing-home costs, then by 2021, when today’s 60-year-olds might need such care, the average rate will have risen to about $480 a day, or $175,200 annually.