What is Long-Term Care?

• Long-term care is the kind of care you would need to help you perform "activities of daily living" (ADLs) - tasks such as feeding yourself, taking a bath, getting dressed, moving from a bed to a chair (transferring), using the bathroom, and remaining continent (toileting issues). It is needed when chronic illness, injury, or age prevents people from performing these everyday tasks by themselves.
  
• Many people think of nursing homes when they hear the words long-term care. However, most long-term care is provided by friends and family members at home. To understand long-term care, it is important to also understand what it is not. Itýs not medical care. Itýs generally not provided by doctors, registered nurses, or other skilled medical professionals. It is not intended to cure a disease, and it is not provided in a hospital.
  
• The insurance industry assesses oneýs need for long-term care in terms of the ability to perform activities of daily living. Whether or not a person can perform a designated number of ADLs without help is an important part of the criteria used to determine if you qualify for benefits. Another measurement used to assess need for long-term care services is cognitive impairment, like that caused by Alzheimerýs disease, severe enough to require substantial supervision.

Who Needs Long-Term Care?

• Long-term care is not just for older adults. In fact, 40 percent of Americans currently receiving long-term care are between the ages of 18 and 64. Growing older, however, increases your chances of needing long-term care. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), 60 percent of Americans who reach age 65 will need long-term care at some point in their lives. More women than men need long-term care because women live longer on average, and the older you get, the higher the odds of needing long-term care.
  
• One out of four Americans age 85 or older lives in a nursing home. Nursing home care is the most expensive type of long-term care. And this age group is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. During the next 30 years, the number of Americans over 85 will more than double, from approximately 4 million to 8.4 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly half of them will need help with activities of daily living.
  
• Americans are living longer. The number of older Americans who need care will increase quickly as the Baby Boom generation ages.

How Much Does Long-Term Care Cost?

• The costs of long-term care vary greatly, depending on the type of care you need, the facility and the region where you receive care. For instance, when averaged nationally, the cost of a five-hour visit by a home health aide is $90. And the national average for one day of residence in a nursing home is $143. Thatýs over $52,000 a year.
  
• The Texas Department of Insurance estimates that nursing home care in Texas can range from $30,000 to $50,000 or more per year.

How Does One Pay For Long-Term Care?

Private Financing