What does long-term care insurance cost in 2023?
I get it. The question is extremely relevant. What does long-term care insurance cost? And specifically what does long-term care insurance cost in 2023, especially with all the economic upheaval going on across the country. Well, like most things, the answer is it depends. In this post, I’ll break down the things that factor into what long-term care insurance may cost you. But, first it’s important to know that similar to other regular health insurance, the policy cost for long-term care insurance has many factors that come into play when it comes to determining just how much it will cost you. But, if you want a good high-level estimate, and don’t have time to keep reading, well, a traditional long-term care insurance policy could cost you as little as \$1,200 over a 1-year period, and could range up to a \$36,000 annual premium, but of course there’s so much that goes into it, so I’d encourage you to keep reading. And if you still don’t want to and instead you want to skip the line, then check out our long-term care cost calculator to get your estimate.
Alright then…. For those who are still reading, here are the key things that determine how much a long-term care insurance policy will cost you.
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What Is Long-Term Care?
Approximately seventy percent of over 60’s will need long-term care services at some time. LTC insurance provides daily support to individuals who cannot do two or more activities of daily living (ADLs). Planning long-term care coverage early is essential to secure future benefits and avoid the possibility of a stack of additional costs for care in later life.
Long-Term Care Cost Considerations
Age – Typically speaking, if you have no underlying medical conditions, the younger you are, the less costly long-term care insurance will be.
Gender – There are different premium rates for different genders. Since women typically live longer than men, according to Kiplinger, they will typically pay higher premium. And we see that with our own carriers, too.
Location – This is a big consideration, and because the average costs of long-term care vary so much by where you get long-term care services, and what type of long-term care you get. Long-term care insurance premiums differ based upon whether care services are within your house, or you need day care, nursing home care, an assisted living facility, or other custodial care.
The location you plan to live in when you need long-term care help is also a big factor. Similar to typical cost of living situations, some of the more expensive states and cities will have higher costs of long-term care. And therefore, your long-term care insurance premium will be higher, accordingly. And vice verse. We built a long-term care needs estimator and it will show you what the cost of care will be by your state, so feel free to check it out. And to read more about costs by location, we laid that out as well.
Health Status – Typically if you’re in a good health and medical condition when you buy long-term care insurance your costs will be lower than if you’re not in as good health because your risk profile of needing long-term care is lower.
Daily Benefit Amount – This refers to how much money in benefits do you plan to or will you need each day you require long-term care. This is hard to estimate, but we typically recommend you understand the cost of long-term care by your location to help decide this.
Years of Coverage – Refers to how long you think you’ll want to have coverage for. Typically people are needing long-term care help for 2.7 years, but that’s the average amount. For many, once you need long-term care help you may never recover, and could need it for well beyond 2.7 years. Calculate how much you plan to have in savings for long-term care, and then see how much more you’ll need, to help factor in the years of coverage.
Inflation Protection – This is an optional extra that allows for the increasing of the daily benefit each year to keep up with increases in long-term term care costs. So as an example, if you have simple inflation protection of 5%, then an initial daily benefit amount of $100 will increase by $5 each year. It’s a good option especially since the prices for long-term care continue to rise.
Waiting Period – This refers to the time between when you begin to receive long-term care and when you’ll begin to receive benefits from your long-term care policy. As an example, if you choose a 60-day waiting period, then the policy will not pay benefits for the first 60 days of long-term care that you receive. Typically speaking, the longer the waiting period, the less expensive the policy. So, if you plan to have some savings to cover the costs of care for a while, then this should factor into the waiting period you choose for a policy.
So, What Does Long-Term Care Insurance Cost in 2023?
Well, like I said, it depends. But, hopefully we walked through the main considerations when it comes to a long-term care policy. We have a pretty in depth needs and intake process that we can walk you through if you want to get a personalized quote or just want to get some questions answered. Feel free to email me directly at eric@policysolver.com
Until next time.
