Long-term Care Insurance
Long-Term Care (LTC) is help that a person may need if he/she is unable to perform certain personal tasks for an extended period due to illness or disability. LTC may include help at a nursing home, adult day care center, assisted living facility, or your own home.
Long-term care insurance is a policy that is designed to help pay the cost of LTC. But even the best LTC insurance policy will not cover all the expenses.
Long-term care is very expensive, especially if the care lasts for a year or more. LTC policies pay for costs associated with this care. On the other hand, LTC insurance can also be rather expensive - especially if a person never needs to use it. Most people who enter a nursing home stay only a few months. The statistics below are from studies conducted in 1997 and produced by the Ohio Department of Aging in 2001.
- Once a person reaches age 65, there is a 43 percent chance of being in a nursing home at some future date.
- The average stay in a nursing home for people age 65 and over was 290 days.
- Only 10 percent of these nursing home residents had a stay between one year and three years.
- The average "long-stay" nursing home patient stays for about two years.
Where can I receive care under a long-term care policy?
The types of places where you can get long-term care depends on what is allowed by your insurance policy. There are four kinds of facilities where care is usually delivered, and policies generally include all four.
Your policy will cover your care in one or more of the following:
- Your Home
- Adult Day Service Center
- Assisted Living Facility
- Nursing Home