The published numbers, up front

Here is what the industry's own price index says, before any of the context. The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance publishes an annual Long-Term Care Insurance Price Index; the 2026 edition was last updated on 28 July 2026. Its age-55 figures are for applicants in select health, and every one of them assumes $165,000 of initial benefit per person.

  • Single man, age 55: $950 a year for a level benefit. $2,200 with 3% yearly growth. $3,710 with 5% growth.
  • Single woman, age 55: $1,500 a year level. $3,750 at 3% growth. $6,400 at 5%.
  • Couple, both 55, combined: $2,080 a year for a level benefit.
  • Single woman, age 60: $4,450 a year.
  • Couple, both 65, combined, with 3% compound growth: $7,030 a year.

Three things to say immediately about those numbers, because they are easy to misread. They are published industry averages, not quotes, and no one can tell you from a table what you would pay. They assume select health, which is an underwriting judgment the insurer makes, not a box you tick. And the gap between the level figure and the growth figures is not a detail — for a single woman at 55 it is the difference between $1,500 and $6,400 a year for the same starting benefit.

The most useful number on the page is a range

The same 2026 index reports that for a couple both aged 60 buying 3% compound growth, five carriers quoted between $4,591 and $7,173 a year. Same couple. Same coverage. A spread of $2,582 a year, which over twenty years of premiums is a very large number.

It is tempting to treat that as an awkward fact. It is the opposite. It is the single most actionable thing published about this product, and it says something plain: the price of long-term care insurance is not a property of the coverage, it is a property of where you buy it. Carriers weigh age, health, gender, geography and their own claims history differently, and they arrive at genuinely different answers about the same person. If you take one practical thing from this page, take that one.

What drives your own number

Age at purchase

The biggest lever, and the one that only moves one way. The index shows a single woman at 55 at $1,500 for a level benefit and $3,750 at 3% growth, while a single woman at 60 is listed at $4,450. A couple at 65 with 3% growth comes in at $7,030. Waiting carries a price, and the premium is only half of it — the other half is health, which we take up on when you should buy long-term care insurance.

Health

Every one of the age-55 figures above assumes select health. Long-term care insurance is medically underwritten, the insurer makes that call on your record, and nobody can promise you an outcome in advance. What underwriting looks at, and why two companies can land in different places on the same person, is covered on what disqualifies you from long-term care insurance.

Gender, and buying as a couple

Women cost more to insure, and the index shows why in one line: at 55 the published level-benefit average is $950 for a man and $1,500 for a woman. That follows the risk — HHS projected in 2022 that 64% of women will develop a significant disability, against 56% of all people turning 65, and that women average 3.6 years of need against 2.5 years for men. Buying together generally prices better than buying separately: the index puts a couple at 55 at $2,080 combined for a level benefit, against $2,450 if you simply added the two individual level figures.

Benefit size and how long it lasts

The whole index assumes $165,000 of initial benefit per person. Ask for a bigger pool and you pay more; ask for a smaller one and you pay less. This is the dial most people do not realise they can turn, and it is usually the one that gets a policy inside a budget.

Growth

The difference between $950 level, $2,200 at 3% and $3,710 at 5% for the same 55-year-old man is the clearest illustration available of what inflation protection costs. It is also the feature that decides whether the benefit still means anything in thirty years, which is exactly when you are most likely to use it.

Elimination period

The waiting period before benefits start is a cash-flow decision and a price lever at the same time. A longer wait lowers the premium and leaves more of the first stretch of care to you.

The cost of the thing you are insuring against

Premiums only mean something next to the exposure. The CareScout Cost of Care Survey for 2025, released in March 2026 from more than 25,000 collected rates, gives these national medians:

  • Nursing home, private room: $355 a day — $129,575 a year.
  • Nursing home, semi-private room: $315 a day — $114,975 a year.
  • Assisted living: $6,200 a month — $74,400 a year, up 5% in a single year.
  • Non-medical caregiver at home: $35 an hour — $80,080 a year at 44 hours a week.
  • Adult day health care: $95 a day — about $24,700 a year at five days a week.

HHS put the average future cost of long-term services and supports for a person turning 65 at $120,900 in today's dollars in its 2022 brief, with families paying 37% of the total out of pocket, averaging $44,800 each. 14% of people will spend at least $100,000 of their own money. Whether a premium in the hundreds or low thousands is worth it against those figures is a real question with a real answer for each household, and we work through it on whether long-term care insurance is worth it. One thing it is certainly not is a Medicare problem solved elsewhere — see what Medicare does and does not cover for long-term care.

What the tax rules give back

Part of a qualified policy's premium can count as a medical expense. For taxable years beginning in 2026 the IRS caps the amount per person by attained age: $500 at 40 or under, $930 from 41 to 50, $1,860 from 51 to 60, $4,960 from 61 to 70 and $6,200 above 70. Medical expenses are only deductible as an itemized deduction and only above 7.5% of adjusted gross income, so this does not reduce most people's bill — but it changes the arithmetic for some. We are not tax advisers. The rule, the caps and the questions to take to your accountant are on whether long-term care insurance is tax deductible.

How The Jordan Insurance Agency helps

Our work on cost is mostly arithmetic and comparison. We start from a number you are comfortable paying every year for a long time and design backwards into it, rather than quoting a policy and hoping. We show what each dial — pool size, growth, elimination period — actually does to the premium. And we put the same design in front of several companies, because the published spread of $4,591 to $7,173 for one 60-year-old couple is not a rounding error, it is the whole reason to compare.

The Jordan Insurance Agency is an independent, licensed insurance agency based at 3540 Toringdon Way, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28277. You can reach us at (704) 926-7565, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern. Because we are independent we represent multiple carriers rather than one, so we can lay your real options side by side instead of steering you toward a single company. A consultation with a licensed agent is free.