As people age or become ill, they sometimes need help doing daily tasks like getting dressed, bathing and more. Long-term care (LTC) provides people with those services—but it’s expensive.

Long Term Care is the type of care received either at home or in a facility, when someone needs assistance with activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing due to an accident, an illness or advancing age. Rising life expectancy means that the potential need for “long-term care” grows with every passing year of your life.

The likelihood is that you or a member of your family will need long-term assistance due to a prolonged illness, a disability, or general deterioration of your health and ability to perform routine daily activities.

Most long-term care expenses are not covered by Social Security or Medicare, Medicare Supplement (“Medigap”), or private health insurance. Medicaid pays for nearly half of all nursing home care, but you must meet federal poverty guidelines and may have to “spend down” most of your assets on health care.

Short Term Care insurance, sometimes called ‘Recovery Care’ protection, addresses significant financial risks facing individuals today. Short-term care insurance policies offer benefits for many different types of health care and aging needs. They typically are purchased by individuals to cover gaps in Medicare coverage, or as an alternative to traditional long-term care insurance protection.

As the name implies, short-term care insurance policies are designed to provide benefits for just a few days or up to 360 days.

Short-term care insurance policies can vary in terms of what they cover, as well as coverage limits. In general, these policies will cover:

Some plans will pay for home health care aides, general and skilled nursing care and may even offer prescription drug benefits and other options.