Long-Term Care can include a broad range of services provided in any setting outside a hospital. It might offer services to help with simple daily tasks like bathing or dressing. On the other hand, it might include skilled care in your home, an assisted living facility, some other community resource, or a nursing facility.

Eye-opening statistics:
• Sixty percent of Americans over the age of 65 will require long-term care in their lifetime.
• In seven out of 10 couples aged 65 & older, at least one spouse will enter a nursing home.
• One out of 10 will stay there five years or longer. Average stay is two and a half years.
• Women are one and a half times more likely than men to enter a nursing home after age 65.
• One in five Americans over the age 50 will need long-term care services in the next 12 months.

1-Washington Post, April 1996
2-Health Insurance Association of America ( HIAA), Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance, 1996
3-The Wall Street Journal, 1990
4-HIAA Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance , 1996
5-Harvard School of Public Health & Louis Harris & Associates, Long Term-Care Awareness Survey, January 6, 1996

Skyrocketing costs:
• Nursing home costs range from $90 to $200 per day or $30,000 to $70,000 annually. The national average is $50,000 per year.
• Basic care in an assisted living facility averages $26,000 a year
• Annual costs for limited care at home following a disability are $36,000 and up.
• Only about 8% of nursing home costs are paid for by Medicare

You have three choices:
1. Self insure, using your own assets to pay for private care
2. Look to the government for long-term care delivery
3. Plan for the future with private long-term care insurance