Paying for the cost of long-term care is a key concern when it comes to maintaining quality of life. In Virginia, the price of living in a nursing home typically ranges from $3,500 to $12,000 per month. It is easy to see that just a few months of care can consume a lifetime of hard-earned savings. Healthy people often neglect to plan ahead for long-term care, although insurance companies estimate that 70 percent of Americans will enter a nursing home at some point in their lives. As time goes on, more families will need to confront these costs. The number of Americans over the age of 65 has increased by more than a third during the past decade alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.