Nov 1, 2011

What is Long Term Care Insurance?

Long term care insurance is exactly what it sounds like: Insurance that helps protect against the high cost of long-term care. Long term care insurance generally covers the cost of home health aides, skilled nursing, assisted living, and nursing homes.

Long term care is most frequently required due to the normal aging process, after a stroke or vehicle accident, or due to conditions like Alzheimer's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis or diabetes.

In-home care can consist of:

  • Personal Care Assistants or Companions, who help with household tasks like cleaning, cooking, and running errands

  • Home Health Aides who help with personal care like bathing and dressing

  • Nurses, who help with IVs, medications, and more complex health issues


Facility care can include:

  • Adult Day Health Care, which offers daytime social and therapeutic activities while still living at home

  • Assisted Living, which allows for independent living with on-site support for daily basics

  • Nursing Homes, which provide more skilled and intense care, supervision, medication, therapies, and rehabilitation


According to one 2008 study, at least 70% of people over age 65 will require some long-term care and of those who need long-term care, 40% are under age 65. So it's definitely something to think about getting before you need it, and I'll discuss that further in an upcoming post.

This post is sponsored by Genworth Financial. All opinions are my own. Read the full CFO disclosure policy here.

4 comments:

Camille said...

My aunt was just telling me yesterday that her long term care insurance premiums are being raised 90% next year! That's quite a cost increase!

Chief Family Officer said...

Um, that's scary. I guess that's something I'll have to look into also!

Sarah D said...

I've actually been discouraging my parents from buying long term care insurance. I believe there are essentially no promises or protections for what the premiums for the LTC insurance will be in the future. And the premiums are not cheap to begin with. My thought is that me and my siblings already ARE "LTC insurance" for my parents. I can take on a lot of the burden of their care, if necessary. For the child-less or for those whose children are unable to care for their parents, LTC would be a much more attractive option. I'm looking forward to reading more from you on this topic -- it's an important topic. Maybe your posts will change my mind. And your post reminds me I should talk to my parents (and in-laws) about this issue.

The Cost of Long-Term Care said...

[...] fall, we talked about what long-term care insurance is, and whether and when to buy long-term care [...]