5 Best Long-Term Care Insurance Companies of May 2023

Securing the best long-term care insurance (LTC) is a fundamental part of future healthcare planning. According to government statistics, the majority of people over the age of 65 will require some form of ongoing care and support later in life, and the cost of such services can add up fast.

An LTC policy can help cover expenses associated with your care as you get older. This includes assistance with everyday activities or specialized care related to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and dementia.

If you’re considering this type of insurance policy, our picks for the best long-term care insurance can help you get started. Read more below.

Our Top Picks for the Best Long-Term Care Insurance Companies

• Nationwide: Best for Customer Satisfaction
• Mutual of Omaha: Best for Discounts
• GoldenCare Insurance: Best for Comparing Multiple Providers
• New York Life: Best for Financial Stability
• Northwestern Mutual: Runner-up for Financial Stability

Best Long-Term Care Insurance Reviews

Why we chose it: Nationwide ranks among the best insurers for customer satisfaction for its low NAIC complaint index and high rank in customer satisfaction surveys. As a well-known national insurer, Nationwide’s reputability adds an extra layer of assurance for customers looking to invest in financially secure products.

Nationwide is one of the largest insurers in the United States, and was ranked among the best for customer satisfaction in J.D. Power’s 2022 U.S. Life Insurance Study. Additionally, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), a regulatory organization, reports a low complaint index from Nationwide compared to other insurance companies in the market.

Nationwide sells universal life insurance policies with two long-term care options:

• LTC as an add-on (or rider) to another policy

• Care Matters, a hybrid policy that includes both life insurance and LTC benefits

Nationwide policies have some pretty convenient perks. For one, under its CareMatters program, you’re not required to submit receipts and bills monthly in order to receive your benefits. After the elimination period, CareMatters also pays the first three months' LTC benefit retroactively along with the first benefit payment. Lastly, policyholders can use their benefits to pay for care from informal caretakers, such as family members.

Why we chose it: Mutual of Omaha made it to our top picks for its discount program. The company awards 15% off to partners who purchase the same policy, 15% for being in good health and 5% for married customers (and whose partners aren’t under the same policy).

Mutual of Omaha offers stackable discounts, with premium discounts applied to the total premium amount and additional discounts applied to the remainder.

The company sells long-term care insurance coverage exclusively as a stand-alone product. Available policy options include the MutualCare® Custom Solution and the MutualCare® Secure Solution, which include:

• Monthly benefits from $1,500 to $10,000

• Elimination periods between 0 and 365 calendar days

• Policy limit of $50,000 to $500,000

• Waiver of premium benefit

• Optional inflation protection benefit

Mutual of Omaha also earns a shout-out for customer satisfaction. The company ranked third place in the J.D. Power’s 2022 U.S. Life Insurance Study and has a solid financial strength rating of A+ from AM Best.

Why we chose it: GoldenCare partners with insurance providers to help match customers with insurers within its network. You can get multiple quotes in one place, and a Golden Care agent is available to guide you through the process.

As an online insurance broker, GoldenCare partners with some of the most prominent companies in the market to help customers find the best options for their long-term care needs.

GoldenCare currently partners with 18 insurance providers (some of which are part of our top picks) including Mutual of Omaha, Transamerica, Aetna, Thrivent, Securian Financial, OneAmerica and National Guardian Life Insurance Company.

The company matches clients with a long-term care specialist that will work with them on their care plan and recommend them toward the insurer that best aligns with their situation. In addition to long-term care insurance, customers can compare other insurance plans such as critical care policies and Medicare insurance products. For more information, please refer to our detailed review.

Why we chose it: Policyholders enrolled with New York Life don’t have to worry about the company’s ability to pay. New York Life has strong financial ratings not just from AM Best, which rates it A++, but from other financial ratings companies like Fitch (AAA), Moody’s (Aaaa) and Standard & Poor’s (AA+).

New York Life is our pick for the best long-term care insurer for financial stability. It has superior financial ratings — the third-highest of any insurance company on our list, regardless of type — and is one of the nation’s oldest mutual insurance providers. The company also ranks above industry average in J.D Power’s 2022 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study.

New York Life offers two types of long-term care insurance options: traditional stand-alone policies and combination long-term care and life insurance policies. Maximum daily benefits range from $50 to $400 per day and waiting periods between 90 and 180 days. You can choose a benefit period of two, three, five, or seven years.

Why we chose it: Three out of four rating agencies award Northwestern Mutual top marks for financial stability while the fourth one rates it just a step below its highest grade. Such stability signals to policyholders that their money is safe and that Northwestern Mutual will be able to make future payouts.

Northwestern Mutual makes our list thanks to its superior financial strength and above-average customer service rankings. The insurer also has a remarkably low complaint index for long-term care policies, according to the NAIC’s National Complaint Index Report and ranks fourth in J.D Power’s 2022 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study.

Northwestern's QuietCare traditional long-term care policy lets you select a maximum monthly benefit from $1,500 to $12,000 in $100 increments. It also lets you choose four elimination period alternatives: six, 12, 25 or 52 weeks. (An elimination period is the length of time between when you first need care and when the policy will start paying benefits.)

One major drawback of this policy is that it will only cover services offered by providers approved by the plan, and not all approved care providers are certified in every state.

Other long-term care insurance companies we considered

The following companies didn’t make our list of top insurers, but they offer LTC coverage and features, like guaranteed lifetime benefits, some consumers might find attractive.

Brighthouse Financial

Brighthouse Financial is an insurance company that specializes in annuities and life insurance policies. Unfortunately, its below-average customer satisfaction score, relatively low AM Best rating and high NAIC complaint ratio disqualified it from our main list.

OneAmerica (State Life Insurance Company)

OneAmerica is a financial services and mutual insurance company that specializes in life insurance and annuity products. It offers hybrid life insurance policies and annuity plans, both of which include LTC benefits. Its relatively high NAIC complaint ratio and low financial strength rating kept it out of our main list.

Lincoln Financial Long-Term Insurance

Although Lincoln Financial has attractive product offerings and a great financial stability rating, its extremely high NAIC complaint ratio (16.31) disqualified it from our main list.

Transamerica

Transamerica allows policyholders to customize their long-term care insurance coverage based on the price range they can afford. However, its low J.D. Power score and high NAIC complaint ratio kept it out of our main list.

California Long Term Care Insurance Services (CLTC)

California Long Term Care Insurance Services, also known as CLTC Insurance Services, is an independent insurance brokerage that specializes in selling long-term care insurance and related products in the state of California. Since CLTC’s services are limited to one state, it did not make our main list.

Long-Term Care Insurance Guide

According to the Administration of Community Living, a branch of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, most people over 65 will require long-term care sometime in their lives, with women needing care longer than men and having to pay more as a consequence.

Despite this, long-term care insurance isn’t as widely known as other types of insurance.

Keep reading to understand how long-term care insurance works, how much it costs and what services are eligible for coverage.

What is long-term care insurance?

Long-term care insurance provides coverage for home health care or facility care if you have a chronic health condition, cognitive impairment and/or can no longer perform at least two of the six basic activities of daily living: personal hygiene, dressing, grooming, using the bathroom, walking or eating.

Many people erroneously believe that Medicare will cover these expenses when the time comes. However, Medicare will not cover most costs associated with long-term care, and many patients end up paying for these costs out of pocket.

How does long-term care insurance work?

Long-term care coverage pays for costs that regular health insurance doesn’t, such as:

• personalized care in your home by a family member or a healthcare professional
• a nursing facility
• an assisted living facility
• an adult day care center

It works much like other types of insurance policies — you’ll pay a monthly premium and the policy will pay for your expenses once you file a claim.

The policy will only go into effect after the elimination period (the time between when you first need care and the point when the policy starts paying benefits). This elimination period is also known as the deductible or waiting period and it can be between 30 and 90 days, depending on your policy.

The benefit period — the number of years the insurance company will payout — starts once the elimination period ends and ranges from five to seven years, depending on the provider. In the past, the benefit period could also be unlimited (lifetime long-term care coverage) but insurers rarely offer it now.

There are specific events that can activate your benefits. These typically include having a cognitive impairment or not being able to perform two to six activities of daily living.

How do long-term care insurance state partnership plans work?

Most states’ Medicaid programs have partnership programs with long-term care insurance providers. These programs aim to promote the purchase of these types of policies.

As a needs-based program, Medicaid has strict financial guidelines — in other words, in order to qualify, the income and assets of potential recipients must not exceed a certain amount.

Participants in these state partnership programs, however, can keep assets beyond those limits set by Medicaid. These partnerships may also protect participants’ assets from Medicaid’s estate recovery program.

State partnerships use the “dollar for dollar” model — for every dollar that the participant’s policy pays out, one more dollar in personal assets is exempt when calculating eligibility. So, if you or your loved one’s policy pays $100,000 for long-term care expenses, Medicaid would disregard an additional $100,000 in personal assets when calculating eligibility.

What does long-term insurance cover?

Long-term care benefits cover the following services:

• Custodial care - Refers to assistance with daily living activities such as bathing, dressing and eating. The caregiver doesn’t need to be licensed

• Skilled nursing - Defined as care that’s provided by a licensed medical professional

Such medical and non-medical services may be provided in a variety of settings such as:

• Assisted living facilities

• Nursing homes

• The beneficiary’s home

Finally, the policy may also cover the following more specialized services:

• Hospice care

• Respite care

• Alzheimer's and dementia care

• Family member training, equipment and home modifications

Types of long-term care insurance

There are two main kinds of LTC insurance policies: stand-alone and hybrid. Understanding which type of LTC policy is right for you and your loved ones can help you make the right decisions and provide you with peace of mind.

Stand-alone long-term care insurance policies

A traditional long-term care insurance policy can reimburse you for some of the costs of the care you receive at home, at a nursing home or in a residential care facility.

This type of policy usually offers some flexibility when it comes to the kind of care you receive, when and where you receive it and for how long.

Stand-alone long-term care insurance policies provide a monthly benefit amount that is paid out during a benefit period. Benefit periods typically range from two to five years, and benefits are disbursed after an elimination period, which customarily ranges between 30 days to 90 days.

You may add riders to your LTC policy that increase or modify coverage, such as one that adds inflation protection to prevent your benefit from losing value as the cost of living increases.

Hybrid long-term care insurance policies

Hybrid long-term care policies typically combine two types of coverage: a life insurance policy or qualifying annuity and a long-term care rider.

The advantages of a hybrid life/long-term care insurance policy include:

• The policy will pay out a death benefit to your beneficiaries if the policyholder doesn't use the long-term care insurance benefits.

• Premium payments are guaranteed not to increase over the life of the policy.

• Underwriting is less strict, and pricing for women could be lower (a life insurance medical exam is still required, though)

But hybrid long-term care insurance policies also have drawbacks, at least for some:

• Premiums can be far higher than those for stand-alone long-term care insurance.

• Buying life insurance late in life is much more expensive than buying when younger

Ultimately, the choice to purchase a stand-alone policy or a hybrid one will depend on your personal and financial goals. An insurance agent can guide you towards the best option for you.

If you're in the market for a life insurance policy, click here to see our ranking of the best life insurance companies.

How much is long-term care insurance?

The American Association for Long Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) says that, in 2022, the average annual premium for a policy benefit equalling $165,000 would cost a 55-year-old couple $2,080 (combined), while individual policies would cost $950 for a 55-year-old male and $1,500 for a woman of the same age.

However, it’s important to compare this to the costs of long-term care itself, as these are rising exponentially.

Between 2020 and 2021, the average cost of assisted living facilities increased by 4.65%, homemaker services by 10.64% and home health aide services by 12.50%.

Long-term care costs can vary depending on the services provided and where they are rendered, whether in-home, at an assisted living facility or at a nursing home facility.

According to Genworth's 2021 Cost of Care Survey, the daily median cost for homemaker services is $163, while a home health aide costs $169. Assisted living costs are lower, with a daily average of $78 for adult day care and $148 for assisted living facilities.

The average annual cost of various care options are as follows:

• Homemaker services: $59,488

• Home health aide: $61,766

• Adult day health care: $20,280

• Assisted living facility: $54,000

• Semi-private room in nursing home: $94,000

• Private room in a nursing home: $108,405

Long-term care insurance cost factors

The following are some of the many factors that determine your LTC insurance premiums:

Age and health

Planning ahead pays off — the younger you are, the less expensive your premium will be. According to a study by the AALTCI, most of the applicants who were denied coverage were in the 60 to 79 age bracket. You may need to undergo a medical exam to receive coverage.

 

Gender

According to data from the Administration on Aging, on average, women outlive men by about five years. Since the odds of a woman making a claim are higher than those of a man, premiums for women tend to be more expensive.

 

Marital status

The cost of long-term care insurance tends to be lower for married couples than for single people.

 

Insurance company

Prices vary depending on how the insurer prices risk and the benefits the policy offers. It's important to compare at least three quotes from different carriers to ensure you’re getting the best price.

 

Selected coverage

The cost of long-term care insurance also depends on the policy's term length, the amount of coverage you select and whether or not you purchase additional policy riders such as inflation protection or return of premium death benefit.

What can disqualify you from long-term care insurance?

Insurance companies price risk differently, which means some may be more lenient than others when it comes to certain risk factors. In general, long-term care insurers will pay special attention to your medical history and any family history of debilitating illness.

Being in poor health or needing help with daily living activities could make it harder to get approved for coverage or to qualify for lower premiums.

Alternatives to long-term care insurance

If private insurance isn’t the right solution for your long-term care insurance needs, there are a few alternatives available.

Medicare and Medicaid

As a joint federal and state public insurance program for low-income Americans, Medicaid is the largest public payer for long-term care services, but not all nursing homes accept it.

Eligibility for Medicaid is strictly needs-based. However, if you haven’t qualified for the program in the past, you may qualify now (or in the future) if you spend a significant portion of your assets paying for care. For more information on the coverage in your state, contact your state’s Medicaid office.

Medicare, on the other hand, doesn’t cover most long-term care expenses, offering coverage for short-term skilled nursing care only — applicable in case of illness or injury and if you meet certain conditions, primarily if you need skilled services or rehabilitative care.

Veterans Health Administration

The Veterans Health Administration and other state-run assistance programs offer aid to cover long-term care expenses to qualifying veterans.

Among other benefits, it offers The Veterans Aid & Attendance Pensions Benefit, a federal program that provides long-term care assistance coverage for veterans and their spouses.

The benefit is tax-free and can be used for in-home care, assisted living or in paying for a private nursing home facility.

To qualify, the veteran must meet receive a VA pension, meet certain financial criteria and meet at least one of the following requirements:

• Needs help in performing daily living activities

• Has to stay in bed (or spend most of the day in bed) due to an illness

• Is a patient in a nursing home due to a disability

• Has limited eyesight even with glasses or contact lenses

Savings

People who have plenty of money saved for retirement can likely bear the costs of long-term care without help.

This is especially true if you own the house you live in, are willing to sell it to cover any long-term care costs (and have someone who can help facilitate the sale and help you move into an assisted living facility.)

The best tools to build a retirement nest are long-term investment plans such as a 401(k) or an IRA, but a savings account may come in handy if you need an additional safety net to withdraw from at will. Check out our reviews for best savings accounts and best high-yield savings accounts to see which offer the best benefits.

Additionally, if you have a health savings account (HSA), you may be able to claim a large portion of medical expenses associated with long-term care, thus allowing you to tap into the pre-tax benefits associated with HSA accounts. In fact, those who are 55 and older are allowed an additional $1,000 for “catch-up” contributions above the 2023 individual contribution limit of $3,850.

Obviously, self-funding isn't an option for those who lack such resources, or who prefer not to risk depleting savings to pay for long-term care, perhaps because it's a priority for them to pass along their wealth to heirs.

Latest News About Long-Term Care Insurance

Working Americans are saving less for retirement in the current economic climate, according to a recent Fidelity report. That said, the savings rate varies between generations — millennials and boomers decreased their savings rate while members of Gen X increased it by 1.4%.

The Social Security fund will be insolvent by 2034 unless Congress takes action. The cause? Soaring inflation, a shrinking workforce and a growing number of retirees. To avoid insolvency, Congress has three options: increase payroll taxes across the board, reduce retirees’ benefits or lift the Social Security "tax cap" so that people in higher income brackets contribute more.

A recent study has revealed that individuals often underestimate their annual Social Security income by nearly $2,000, which could have a significant consequence for retirement planning. In short, the study suggests that retirees may receive more Social Security benefits than they initially anticipate.

If you suffer from a long-term illness or injury that prevents you from working, long-term disability insurance can provide financial support. To learn more about the best long-term disability insurance companies available, check out our roundup of the top five options.

How We Chose The Best Long-term Care Insurance Companies

To select the best long-term care insurance companies of 2023, we looked into the company’s financial strength as evidenced by AM Best's ratings.

We also considered the customer satisfaction ratings from J.D. Power’s 2022 Individual Life Insurance Study and the complaint index reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), a regulatory organization that gathers complaint reports from state health departments.

Summary of Money’s Best Long-term Care Insurance of May 2023

• Nationwide: Best for Customer Satisfaction
• Mutual of Omaha: Best for Discounts
• GoldenCare Insurance: Best for Comparing Multiple Providers
• New York Life: Best for Financial Stability
• Northwestern Mutual: Runner-up for Financial Stability