Life & Income Protection
Long-Term Care Insurance: What It Covers and What It Costs
Based on the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) 2026 Price Index, updated July 2026.
Long-term care insurance fills a gap almost nothing else covers. Here is what a policy actually pays for and why the premium varies so much by age and gender.
Data sourced from American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI)
Why long-term care insurance exists as its own product
Health insurance and Medicare are built around treating and curing medical conditions, not around ongoing custodial help with everyday activities once treatment options are exhausted. Medicare covers a limited amount of skilled nursing care after a hospital stay, but not the extended nursing home, assisted living, or in-home custodial care that most people eventually associate with "long-term care." That gap is exactly what a standalone long-term care insurance policy is built to fill.
A policy typically pays a daily or monthly benefit, up to a total benefit pool, toward the cost of nursing home care, assisted living, adult day care, or in-home care from a paid caregiver, once you meet the policy's benefit trigger, usually needing help with a set number of activities of daily living or having a cognitive impairment like dementia.
What a policy actually costs
Using a representative $150-a-day benefit over a 3-year benefit period (a $165,000 total benefit pool) with 3% compound inflation protection, a single man buying at age 55 pays about $2,200 a year.
A single woman buying the same coverage at the same age pays about $3,750 a year, roughly 70% more.
Waiting to buy costs more too. By age 65, the same coverage runs about $3,058 a year for a man and about $5,213 a year for a woman, an increase of roughly 39% and 39% respectively over just 10 years, on top of whatever health changes might occur in the meantime that could affect eligibility altogether.
Why women pay more
The gender gap in long-term care premiums comes down to claims experience, not arbitrary pricing. Women live longer on average than men, and longer lifespans correlate with a higher lifetime probability of eventually needing extended custodial care, particularly for conditions like dementia that become more common at advanced ages.
Insurers price the policy around that higher expected claim likelihood, the same actuarial logic used across insurance broadly, just more pronounced here than in most other lines.
Inflation protection is not optional in practice
Long-term care costs have historically climbed faster than general inflation. A fixed $150-a-day benefit purchased today without any inflation adjustment might sound adequate now, but could cover a much smaller share of the actual daily cost of care by the time a policyholder in their 50s or 60s actually files a claim, often 20 or more years later.
Every figure in this guide assumes 3% compound inflation protection is included, which raises the premium today in exchange for the benefit amount rising automatically each year.
The couples discount, and a common outdated claim
Buying as a couple, both partners applying for their own policies under the same household plan, earns about a 15% discount today. Only one partner applying still earns a smaller 5% discount.
Older articles and some secondary sources still cite a much wider 25% to 40% couples discount, but that reflects pricing that has since been reduced industry-wide, worth knowing if you come across those higher figures while shopping.
Frequently asked questions
What does long-term care insurance actually cover?
It covers extended custodial care: nursing home stays, assisted living, and in-home personal care for help with daily activities like bathing, dressing, and eating. Standard health insurance and Medicare cover almost none of this.
Medicare pays for short, medically-necessary skilled nursing after a hospital stay, typically no more than 100 days, not the kind of extended custodial care most long-term care insurance is built to fund.
Why do women pay significantly more than men for the same coverage?
At age 55, a woman's premium runs about 70% higher than a man's for identical coverage. Women statistically live longer on average and are more likely to eventually need extended long-term care, so insurers price that higher expected claim probability into the premium, the same actuarial logic that makes auto insurance rates vary by age and driving record.
What is inflation protection and why does buying it early matter?
The premiums here assume 3% compound inflation protection, meaning your benefit amount automatically increases each year to help keep pace with rising care costs. Skipping it lowers your premium today, but a fixed $150-a-day benefit purchased now will cover meaningfully less care by the time you actually need it, often decades later, since long-term care costs have historically risen faster than general inflation.
How much does the couples discount actually save?
Insurers currently offer about a 0.15% discount when both spouses or partners buy a policy, and about a 0.05% discount when only one applies under a shared household plan.
That is notably smaller than the 25% to 40% couples discounts some older articles still cite, industry pricing on this specific discount has tightened in recent years.