Why Do I Need Long Term Care Insurance? 
Not everyone needs long term care insurance . LTCI is not for persons who are struggling to meet their day to day living expenses , rent an apartment , and have little savings and no investments . If such a person needed to go to a nursing home , Medicaid will almost immediately start picking up their tab and they will be fine . Long term care insurance is for those who have substantial assets or income that they do n't want to `` lose '' by paying high long term care costs . Some people are OK with their savings going to long term care expenses , if needed . They figure that is why they saved . Others feel strongly that they want to pass that wealth to heirs to continue a business , care for a disabled adult child , or help grandchildren go to college , among a myriad of other reasons . It is this latter segment of the population that `` needs '' long term care insurance , especially if they are not so very wealthy that paying nursing home expenses for many years would simply dent their resources , rather than deplete them . If they can afford long term care insurance , but would not be able to to pay for long term care services , people who are adamant about choosing the type of care they receive , or persons who are setting up a plan so that their children do n't have to worry about it , also could use long term care insurance . As long as Medicaid is around , no one absolutely needs long term care insurance . But for all the reasons above , many people would consider it a need if they looked at it realistically . 