It depends on your financial situation. You should consider the amount of your assets, the amount of assets you want to protect and the level of premium you can afford to pay.

All quality long term care insurance offers some protection for your assets, particularly if you buy insurance that will pay for your care no matter how long you may need it, which is call “lifetime” coverage. A lifetime policy with built-in inflation protection is the right choice if you have extensive assets and can afford the cost. Your benefits will never run out and your assets will be protected against the cost of an extended illness. But, many people cannot afford to pay the higher premiums for a quality policy that includes inflation protection that also has lifetime coverage.

Of those who enter nursing homes, 55% will have total lifetime use of at least one year and 21% will have total lifetime use of five years or more. These figures do not include the time that these people are likely to have been in their own homes receiving formal paid long term care as well as unpaid care from their families, friends, and charitable or volunteer organizations.

Medic-Cal allows a single individual to keep no more that $2,000 in non-exempt assets. Many people have modest amounts of assets somewhere between $40,000 and $250,000. When middle income Californians inquire about qualifying for Medi-Cal, they find they are not eligible for assistance in paying their long term care costs because they have too much in assets. Before Medi-Cal will pay for a nursing home or other long-term care services, an individual has to demonstrate they have used all available assets to pay for their own care.