What is Long Term Care Insurance?

Long Term Care Insurance is insurance provided from the private sector. Its purpose is to cover the care for people with chronic health conditions that will have little or no foreseeable improvement. Chronic health conditions can begin at any age. Most often long term care insurance is purchased to cover the health costs associated with aging without depending on personal assets or government assistance. Though long term care insurance has been around in various forms since the early days of Medicare, today’s policies have evolved to meet needs and are quite different from their predecessors.

Most plans now cover a broad range of services including skilled nursing care, custodial nursing care, home health care, adult day care and hospice. Assisted living in home is by far the long term care of choice by most elderly and their families. Unlike other kinds of insurance, long term care insurance pays for personal care services, even if no other kind of care is needed.

Almost 7 million Americans have turned to private long term care plans to protect their assets.¹³ America’s long term care problem will grow even more as the huge baby-boomer generation gets older. The government is unlikely to ever have the resources to start a new entitlement program for long term care. Because of these reasons, many individuals are beginning to realize that private insurance is the best way to shield themselves from financial ruin and give them the ability to choose their care before they become incapacitated.