Yes. Purchasing long term care insurance before you need long term care can be an option to cover future nursing home costs. Like any insurance policy, you pay premiums over time before you need the services, to get coverage later. When and if you require LTC care, then the private insurance you’ve paid for kicks in to pay part of the cost. The important questions are (1) how much do I pay? And (2) how much coverage do I get?

Yes, private LTC insurance usually is expensive. According to a 2018 article by AARP, premiums for long term care policies average about $2,700 per year (around $225 per month). Typically, the earlier an insurance plan is purchased, the lower the premiums will be.

Therefore, as the AARP article says, “if you have difficulty paying your bills now …, spending thousands of dollars a year for a long term care policy might not make sense.” Another concern is whether the amount of coverage you can afford to buy today will be enough to really help with the actual cost by the time you need care somewhere in the future.

Yes. That same AARP article also notes that insurance companies often turn down applicants with preexisting conditions. The protections in the Affordable Care Act preventing denial of ordinary health insurance for preexisting conditions do not apply to long term care insurance.

People who have already been diagnosed with conditions that may eventually require long term care (such as early Alzheimer’s) may find it almost impossible to buy private long term care insurance.

For more information about private long term care insurance, look at these two articles from the American Association for Retired Persons:

• “Understanding Long-Term Care Insurance.”
• “5 Things You SHOULD Know About Long-Term Care Insurance.”

Yes. They are called “State Partnership Programs.” These programs try to encourage people to buy long term care insurance, by providing extra protection not typically available under a regular long-term care policy. For example, the West Virginia “Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Program” allows the purchasers of long term care insurance to keep more of their own assets if eventually they need Medicaid coverage. If you’re thinking about a long term care insurance policy, ask the insurance agent whether the policy qualifies under the West Virginia Partnership Program.

MediGap policies generally do not help with long term care costs. MediGap policies help where Medicare pays some but not all of a particular type of medical cost. As we’ll discuss in a moment, Medicare covers “long term care” only for a very short time. When Medicare quits paying anything toward long term care, MediGap policies generally also quit paying.

For information about Medicare and long term care, read this article.  For information about Medicaid and long term care costs, read this article.