Medicare is designed to pay for health care expenses: doctors, hospitals, medical supplies, etc.
Nursing homes primarily provide support services such as room, board, and assistance with the activities of daily living: eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, and so on.
Most health insurance programs including Medicare do not pay for long term care at nursing homes. Long term care insurance or Medicaid will provide coverage for nursing home stays.
Co-Founder, TermInsuranceBrokers.com, Goldenzweig Financial Group, Las Vegas, Nevada
Nursing home care is typically covered by a Long-Term Care insurance policy. Medicare can cover some nursing home expenses, but only under specific conditions. The facility providing the nursing home care to Medicare beneficiaries must be a Medicare certified skilled nursing home and you must have a qualifying hospital stay (at least a 3-day hospital stay) before going into the nursing care facility. Medigap plans can provide some coverage too if Medicare approves the claim for nursing home care (Medigap plans only provide benefits if Medicare does too). You can also refer to Medicare.gov to see specifically what nursing home care expenses are covered.
A Long-Term Care insurance policy is recommended because it can protect you from draining all your savings to pay for the expensive costs of nursing home care. According to longtermcare.gov, the average cost of care in a nursing home facility is approximately $6,235 per month in a semi-private room (that's $74,820 per year), $6,965 per month for a private room (that's $83,580 per year), and $3,293 per month for care in an assisted living facility (that's $39,516). In short, the cost of care is more than what most people make in a year and they would drain their assets paying for the care. How many people could afford to write that size check? So why take on the risk yourself when you can shift the risk to a third party (the insurance company) and let them take care of the expenses.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Thanks very much.
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Nursing homes primarily provide support services such as room, board, and assistance with the activities of daily living: eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, and so on.
Most health insurance programs including Medicare do not pay for long term care at nursing homes. Long term care insurance or Medicaid will provide coverage for nursing home stays.
A Long-Term Care insurance policy is recommended because it can protect you from draining all your savings to pay for the expensive costs of nursing home care. According to longtermcare.gov, the average cost of care in a nursing home facility is approximately $6,235 per month in a semi-private room (that's $74,820 per year), $6,965 per month for a private room (that's $83,580 per year), and $3,293 per month for care in an assisted living facility (that's $39,516). In short, the cost of care is more than what most people make in a year and they would drain their assets paying for the care. How many people could afford to write that size check? So why take on the risk yourself when you can shift the risk to a third party (the insurance company) and let them take care of the expenses.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Thanks very much.