California Long Term Care Insurance Cost Information

Long Term Care needs are complex. The fact that they are required over a long period of time makes Long Term Care very costly. Genworth Financial, a leading Fortune 500 global financial security company, conducted an extensive survey on the median cost of care for 2010. Their studies reveal that the average median rate for Assisted Living Facilities (private one bedroom) amounted to $42,000 per year. A private room in Nursing Homes costs an average median rate of $87,345, whereas a Semi-Private Room costs $73,000 a year.

Region	Home Health Aide Hourly Rate (Medicare Certified)	Assisted Living Facility Monthly Rate (Private room)	Nursing Home Daily Rate (Semi-private room)	Nursing Home Daily Rate (Private room)
Bakersfield	$19	$3,400	$224	$270
Chico	$18	$3,509	$205	$229
East Bay	$24	$3,350	$250	$282
El Centro	$12	$3,800	$147	$147
Fresno	$19	$3,500	$190	$214
Hanford-Corcoran	$20	$2,733	$190	$215
Los Angeles County	$20	$3,500	$185	$218
Madera-Chowchilla	n/a	$3,450	$190	$196
Merced	$23	$3,149	$182	$195
Modesto	$20	$3,446	$197	$223
Napa	$23	$3,744	$225	$264
Orange County	$21	$3,845	$201	$263
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura	$22	$4,000	$196	$238
Redding	$20	$2,750	$223	$242
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario	$20	$3,000	$184	$208
Sacramento - Arden-Arcade - Roseville	$21	$3,500	$211	$293
Salinas	$24	$5,000	$243	$300
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos	$21	$3,000	$205	$250
San Francisco-Oakland	$25	$3,250	$240	$311
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara	$24	$3,500	$219	$299
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles	$22	$4,225	$178	$197
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta	$27	$3,875	$260	$420
Santa Cruz-Watsonville	$25	$3,900	$211	$218
Santa Rosa-Petaluma	$25	$4,175	$245	$254
Stockton	$19	$3,158	$203	$270
Vallejo-Fairfield	$23	$3,000	$200	$245
Visalia-Porterville	$20	$3,713	$195	$215
Yuba City	$23	$2,983	$180	$192
Rest of State	$25	$3,200	$202	$220

Undeniably, Long Term Care leaves a huge impact both physically and financially to many families in California. Almost 4 million adults in California are aged 65 and above, and more than 500,000 of these senior residents are below Federal Poverty Level. Approximately 27% of the senior population is on Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) where women account for 15.3% of the figures. Medicaid spending in the State of California amounted to $28.9billion, where the largest shares are allotted for the disabled (40%) and seniors (27%) for the fiscal year 2006. California is one of the top 4 most expensive states in the nation to receive care.

California Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Program

California Partnership for Long Term Care is a partnership between the Department of Health Care Services of the State of California and private insurance companies. The program aims to relieve the financial burden on the State's medical assistance program since Long Term Care is financed through a combination of private insurance and Medi-Cal.

California Long Term Care Partnership Policy

Policies offered by private insurance companies must meet requirements set by the Partnership program. These are called Partnership policies and include the special feature of Medi-Cal Asset Protection. An individual under a qualified Long Term Care Partnership policy continue to receive insurance benefits for his ongoing care needs through Medi-Cal without being required to spend down or exhaust his assets or resources, after using up the benefits of his qualified private insurance policy. Aside from this access to Medi-Cal, a Partnership policy has a "lifetime asset protection". This allows you to "purchase policies with coverage equal to the amount of assets you want to protect from approximately $47,000 up to your total assets."

For example, lets say you have assets (outside of your house and car) of $200,000. You buy a 4 year Partnership qualified Long Term Care insurance policy with a maximum benefit of $150 per day. The total coverage of the policy is therefore $150 times 4 years (1460 days) or $219,000. If after 4 years of receiving benefits on the policy you still need care you can access Medical Benefits without having to spending down your $200,000 of savings. Because of the asset protection feature, you are assured that your assets or resources are protected for life. You and your loved ones will not worry of spending these assets that you hoped to protect.

Types of Partnership Policies

There are two kinds of Partnership policies. The Comprehensive type covers care at home and community, and care in facilities (nursing homes and residential care facilities). The other kind of Partnership policy is the Facility Only type and only covers care in a facility. Both policies offer one to five years of coverage. Lifetime coverage was made available since October 1998. All Partnership policies include the following features:

Automatic inflation protection
Waiver of premiums while receiving care in a facility. A Partnership policy must waive the premiums when a policyholder receives the Policy's Nursing Facility or Residential Care Facility benefit.
A deductible that must be satisfied once in the policyholder's lifetime. Also called the Elimination Period, this is the number of days in which care is paid by the policyholder before the Policy begins to cover any expenses.
Care coordination or assistance in planning and securing care services. Care coordination includes services provided by a licensed health care professional, a designee of a Care Management Organization approved by the State Department of Health, to assess and create a plan specific to one's Long Term Care needs.
Interchangeable policy benefits for customizing care.

Facts on Partnership Policies in California

Data collected by the State of California Department of Health Care Services during the third quarter of 2008 revealed that Californians between ages 55 and 74 were the highest purchasers of Partnership policies. Most policyholders are married women. The most popular choice among purchasers is the comprehensive policy type - 33% chose a three year policy length while 10% chose Lifetime coverage. Policy benefits were mostly used for assisted living facilities and personal care.

Obtaining a Partnership Policy

Partnership policies may only be purchased from approved insurance companies. Licensed insurance companies in California must meet regulations and requirements set by the Partnership. Below is a list of carriers offering Partnership policies in the state of California:

Genworth Financial
MetLife
Bankers Life and Casualty
CalPERS Long-Term Care Program
New York Life Insurance

Fill out this short form to get your free quotes from all providers

We don't just offer one solution. We shop all of the major carriers in California to offer you the best price. With our 35+ years of Long Term Care insurance experience, we'll save you time and money on your Long Term Care Insurance quotes. We only use your personal information to formulate your quotes and discounts. We will also email you a complimentary copy of the 2010 NAIC Shopper's Guide to Long Term Care Insurance so you can learn even more about LTCi.

*First Name:

*Last Name:

*Address:

*City:

*State:

*Zip Code:

*Phone:

*Email:

*Your Age:

Spouse's Age: