A 60-year-old couple shopping for long-term care coverage today can expect to pay roughly $3,800 to $4,000 a year combined for a policy with modest benefits, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.
Wait until 65, and that same couple is looking at closer to $5,500 annually.
A single 60-year-old man might pay around $1,200 a year; a woman the same age pays nearly double, largely because women live longer and file more claims.
Those numbers sting, but they're only averages.
Genworth's annual Cost of Care survey puts the national median for a private room in a nursing home above $116,000 a year, with assisted living facilities running past $64,000.
In high-cost states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Alaska, those figures can run 40 to 60 percent higher.
The uncomfortable math: a single year of care can wipe out a typical retiree's entire savings.
Insurers badly mispriced these policies in the 1990s and 2000s.
They assumed people would drop coverage before filing claims, and that low interest rates would let them earn their way out of trouble.
Claims came in higher and earlier, and a decade of near-zero rates gutted investment returns.
Companies like Genworth, John Hancock, and MetLife either exited the market, hiked rates, or both.
Several major insurers won approval for rate increases of 50 to 90 percent on legacy policies in recent years, and more requests are pending in state insurance departments.
The result is a market that looks nothing like it did two decades ago.
Traditional standalone policies are harder to find, and the ones that remain often cap annual premium increases through features that raise the starting price.
Hybrid policies, which combine life insurance with a long-term care rider, have become the default recommendation for many advisors.
You pay a lump sum or fixed premiums, and if you never need care, your heirs get a death benefit.
The trade-off is less coverage per dollar and less flexibility.
First, check whether you already have coverage through an employer or a former employer, since group rates are often cheaper.
Second, consider a "shared care" rider if you're married, which lets spouses draw from each other's benefit pools and can be cheaper than two full policies.
Third, look at your state's partnership program, which lets certain policies protect some assets from Medicaid spend-down.
And fourth, price out self-funding: if you have $500,000 or more in investable assets and a pension or Social Security that covers your base expenses, you may be able to earmark a portion of your portfolio for care instead of paying premiums for decades.
Premiums rise with age, and a health event like a diabetes diagnosis or a knee replacement can make you uninsurable overnight.
If you're in your late 50s and healthy, this is the window.
If you're past 70 or have significant health issues, the math often tilts toward self-funding or relying on family and Medicaid.
None of this is comfortable to plan for, and no policy fits everyone.
But the cost of doing nothing is now higher than the cost of a premium check, and that gap is widening every year.
Our take: long-term care insurance isn't a great deal for everyone, but for healthy people in their late 50s with assets to protect, locking in coverage before rates and health histories close the door is usually the smarter bet.
Final Thoughts
Shop at least three carriers, read the rate-increase history, and don't let an agent rush you.