The price of long-term care coverage keeps going up, and a new round of increases is hitting policyholders in dozens of states.
For many families, the letter that arrives in the mail is the first sign that a plan they bought years ago no longer costs what they expected.
Long-term care insurance is not health insurance.
It helps pay for things Medicare mostly does not cover: nursing home stays, assisted living, and in-home help with daily tasks like bathing, dressing, and eating.
A private room in a nursing home now runs well over $100,000 a year in many parts of the country, and in-home care can cost $30 an hour or more.
That gap is why people buy the coverage in the first place.
It is also why insurers keep asking regulators for permission to raise rates.
Companies priced many policies in the 1990s and 2000s assuming that people would drop coverage, that they would die sooner, and that interest rates would stay higher than they did.
When those assumptions missed, the money set aside to pay future claims came up short.
The result is that increases of 20% to 60% or more on older policies are not unusual, and some policyholders have seen their premiums double.
New coverage is priced more carefully, but it is also more expensive up front.
A healthy 60-year-old couple can expect to pay several thousand dollars a year combined for a solid policy, and a single 65-year-old man might pay $2,500 to $4,000 a year depending on the benefits chosen.
Many insurers let you keep your premium steady by accepting a smaller daily benefit or a shorter payout period.
Some let you reduce inflation protection, though that is often the feature worth protecting most.
If you simply stop paying, you usually lose everything you have put in, so it is worth a call to your agent or your state's insurance department before you let a policy lapse.
Traditional long-term care policies are not the only option anymore.
Hybrid plans that combine life insurance with a long-term care benefit let you use the money either way, and some employers and unions offer group coverage at lower rates.
A few states are also rolling out payroll-funded programs, though benefits are modest.
If you are weighing coverage, start with the real numbers in your area.
Call two or three home care agencies and one assisted living facility and ask what they charge today.
Then compare that to your savings, your income, and what your family could realistically chip in.
That gap is the amount you are trying to insure, and it is a better guide than any rule of thumb.
One more thing worth doing: read your policy's fine print on what triggers benefits.
Most plans require you to need help with two of six daily activities, or to have a cognitive impairment.
Knowing that now can save a painful argument later.
The honest takeaway is that long-term care coverage is neither a scam nor a magic fix.
It is a tool that works for some households and not others, and the price tag keeps moving.
If you already own a policy, open that renewal letter instead of tossing it, because a 30-minute phone call could save you thousands.
Our opinion: for most families, the smartest move is not to buy the biggest policy or skip coverage entirely, but to price out local care costs first and insure only the gap you truly cannot cover.
Final Thoughts
Do that math before the next rate increase forces the decision for you.