Does Medicare or Medicaid pay for Long Term Care?

Many people confuse Medicare with Medicaid and assume they will be covered for long term care by Medicare.  Medicare, which is the Federal program, only pays for skilled care when there is a diagnosis that you will get better.  It typically occurs after a hospital stays and is limited to a maximum of 100 days.

Most long term care is custodial care, not skilled care and occurs for months and even years.  In a recent poll, 34% of the people surveyed thought Medicare would pay for ongoing nursing home care and 36% for ongoing home care. If people understood that Medicare isn’t going to pay for their long term care and they were going to end up paying for it themselves until they spent most of their life savings and qualified for Medicaid, many of them would be willing to purchase long term care insurance.Alta Vista Benefits