The Long-Term Care Planning Guide
What Medicare doesn't cover, and what you can do about it. Updated for 2026 with current costs, insurance options, and planning strategies.
What You Need to Know About Long-Term Care
Almost 7 in 10 people turning 65 will need some kind of long-term care. Most assume Medicare will cover it. It won't. A private nursing-home room now costs $129,575 a year nationally, the 2025 median.
This 15-page guide covers what long-term care actually costs today, your insurance options (including the hybrid policies that have changed the market), how to protect your assets through Medicaid planning, and the tax benefits most families miss. Written in plain English by the advisors who help families plan for this every week.
- Arizona, Nevada, and national costs for nursing homes, assisted living, and home care
- What Medicare actually pays for (and where it stops after day 100)
- Hybrid vs traditional LTC insurance: side-by-side comparison
- Arizona ALTCS and Nevada Medicaid limits for 2026, the five-year look-back, and protections for the spouse at home
- Tax deduction limits, caregiver financial impact, and five things to remember
What You'll Learn
What Care Costs by State
Nursing home, assisted living, and home care costs for Arizona, Nevada, and the nation, from the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey.
Hybrid vs Traditional Insurance
Fewer insurers sell traditional coverage, and many people now look at hybrid policies. Premiums, death benefits, and what you get back if you cancel, explained side by side.
The Caregiver Crisis
63 million Americans are family caregivers, and the unpaid care given to adults is worth about $1 trillion a year. Here is what that means for your spouse and your children.
Tax Benefits + Asset Protection
2026 IRS deduction limits by age, Arizona ALTCS and Nevada Medicaid eligibility, what the spouse at home can keep, and a what-if example of a three-year nursing-home stay.
Get the Full Guide
The complete Long-Term Care Planning Guide with 2026 cost data, insurance comparisons, and planning strategies. No email required. No strings attached.
15 pages. Takes about 15 minutes to read.
Quick Answers
Does Medicare pay for long-term care?
Medicare doesn't cover custodial care, the everyday help with bathing, dressing and eating that most people need, when that is the only care you need. It covers limited skilled nursing care after a hospital stay. Almost 7 in 10 people turning 65 will need long-term care. A private nursing-home room cost a national median of $129,575 a year in 2025.
Key facts
- Almost 7 in 10 people turning 65 will need some kind of long-term care. Source: Administration for Community Living
- Women need care longer on average: 3.7 years, compared with 2.2 years for men. Source: Administration for Community Living
- Original Medicare covers skilled nursing facility care only after at least 3 days in a row as a hospital inpatient, and for no more than 100 days in a benefit period. Source: Medicare.gov
- In 2026 you pay $0 for days 1 to 20 after the $1,736 Part A deductible, $217 a day for days 21 to 100, and all costs after that. Source: Medicare.gov
- The 2025 median for a private nursing-home room was $137,240 a year in Arizona and $173,558 in Nevada, against $129,575 nationally. Source: CareScout
Long-Term Care Questions, Answered
Does Medicare pay for a nursing home?
Only for short stays that need skilled care. After at least 3 days in a row as a hospital inpatient, Original Medicare can cover skilled nursing facility care for up to 100 days in a benefit period if you need daily skilled care. In 2026 you pay $0 for days 1 to 20 after the $1,736 deductible, then $217 a day through day 100. Medicare doesn't cover custodial care if that is the only care you need.
How much does long-term care cost in Arizona and Nevada?
In the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, Arizona's yearly medians were $137,240 for a private nursing-home room, $100,375 for a semi-private room, $75,000 for assisted living and $86,944 for 44 hours a week of in-home care. Nevada's were $173,558, $141,438, $74,895 and $84,656. The national median for a private room was $129,575. Prices vary by city and provider.
How long does long-term care usually last?
On average, women need care for 3.7 years and men for 2.2 years, according to the federal Administration for Community Living. About a third of people turning 65 may never need long-term care, while 1 in 5 will need it for more than 5 years. Most care happens at home, often from family, and stays in a facility average about a year.
When should I look at long-term care insurance?
While you are healthy, because health decides whether you can get coverage. The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance reports that insurers decline nearly half of people who apply after age 70, and that most claims begin after age 80. Options include traditional long-term care insurance, hybrid life insurance with long-term care benefits, and riders on life insurance or annuities. Whether any of them fits depends on your health, savings and family.
What is a hybrid long-term care policy?
It is life insurance with long-term care benefits built in. If you need care, the policy pays benefits, and what it pays reduces the death benefit. If you never need care, a death benefit goes to your beneficiaries. Premiums are often set by contract, and some policies return part or all of the premium if you cancel, depending on the terms. Guarantees depend on the claims-paying ability of the insurance company.
Are long-term care insurance premiums tax deductible?
Partly. For 2026, premiums on a tax-qualified policy count as a medical expense up to an age-based limit per person: $500 at 40 or under, $930 at 41 to 50, $1,860 at 51 to 60, $4,960 at 61 to 70 and $6,200 over 70. Medical expenses are deductible only above 7.5% of adjusted gross income, and only if you itemize. Self-employed people may deduct qualified premiums without itemizing, and HSA money can pay them up to the same limits.
Sources
- Medicare.gov: Skilled nursing facility care
- Medicare.gov: Long-term care
- Administration for Community Living: How much care will you need?
- CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025: median cost tables
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32: 2026 long-term care premium limits
General education, not tax, legal or insurance advice. Cost figures are 2025 medians; Medicare and IRS amounts are for 2026 and change each year.
The full guide goes deeper. Get the guide above.
Keep going
More on long-term care
Long-Term Care PlanningA one-page look at what care costs, how to pay for it, and when benefits begin.
Life InsuranceTerm, whole, universal and hybrid life insurance, and why an older policy deserves a fresh look.
- Listen More Than a Death Benefit, a podcast series
- How we help Financial planning with healthcare built in