What kind of care does long-term care insurance cover?

Long-term care insurance typically covers a comprehensive array of care in either your home or at a specialized facility. The exact type of covered varies by policy, but it often includes:

• Home health care such as skilled in-home nursing care; occupational, speech, physical and rehabilitation therapy; and help with activities of daily living like bathing and eating. Some policies may also include homemaker services like meal preparation and house cleaning services.
• Respite care that provides temporary care at a home, adult day care or nursing home. It’s meant to relieve a primary caregiver of responsibilities for a span of a few weeks per year.
• Adult day care centers
• Assisted living facilities
• Nursing homes
• Alzheimer’s special care facilities

A few long-term care insurance policies also cover short-term hospice care. Hospice care helps manage the physical pain and emotional and spiritual needs of people facing a terminal illness. Hospice care, however, is one form of care that Medicare usually covers for people with a life expectancy of six months or less, so it’s often not covered by long-term care insurance.

Long-term care insurance typically doesn’t cover care provided by family members. It also usually doesn’t cover medical care costs⁠—those are typically covered by private health insurance and/or Medicare.