Sarah Agostino at CNBC wrote about long-term care planning for women, who outlive men on average and are far more likely to need care for more than five years: 26% of women versus 17.5% of men, according to HHS research. A private nursing home room ran $355 a day, or $129,575 a year, in 2025.
Most people approach the insurance question the wrong way. They look at that annual cost and assume they need a policy that covers all of it, decide the premium is unaffordable, and walk away with nothing. What I told CNBC: you do not need something that covers every dollar you are going to spend in a nursing home or having somebody come to your house. You just need to bridge the gap between your guaranteed income, pensions, annuities, Social Security, and what the cost might be.
That reframe cuts the size of the policy, cuts the premium, and makes the decision far less paralyzing. For most couples the gap is a fraction of the headline number.
For married couples there is another option worth knowing: a shared-pool policy, one benefit that either spouse can draw from. If one spouse needs care first and uses their portion, the other can draw on the shared pool. It is not right for every household, but for budget-conscious couples, or one where the husband is younger, it often beats having no coverage at all.
Insure the gap, not the whole bill.
Read the full article at CNBC →
