Long-term care insurance cost: what your premium buys
Enter your age, the daily benefit and benefit period on your quote, the inflation option and the yearly premium. The pool of benefits available at the age you test appears at once.
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Benefit pool at age 80
$458,537
$419 a day then, $219,000 today
| Premiums paid until then | $75,000 |
| Pool at the claim age | $458,537 |
| Pool for each $1 of premium | $6.11 |
| Premium deductible in 2026, at most | $1,860 |
Premiums assumed flat; insurers can raise them for a whole class of policies. Benefits above the per diem limit can be taxable if the policy pays a flat daily amount.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · IRS rules and BLS plan data read November 7, 2026
A long-term care policy sells a pool of money: a daily or monthly benefit times a benefit period, sometimes growing each year with an inflation option. Premiums depend on the insurer, age, health, the benefit, the period, the waiting period and the inflation option, and no public source publishes them, so this page takes the premium on your quote and measures what it buys. Bought at 55 with a $200 daily benefit for 3 years, the pool is $219,000 today. At age 80, after 25 years of premiums, it is still $219,000 without inflation protection, $383,250 with 3% simple growth, $458,537 with 3% compound and $741,612 with 5% compound. A $3,000 yearly premium adds up to $75,000 by then. Part of each premium can count as a medical expense within the 2026 IRS age limits, up to $1,860 at 55.
What the quote describes
A long-term care quote names a benefit and a price. The benefit is a daily or monthly maximum and a benefit period, often two to five years, sometimes expressed directly as a pool of money; an elimination period, counted in days of care before benefits begin; and an inflation option. Multiply the daily benefit by 365 and by the years of the benefit period, and you get the pool the policy can pay at today's values. The calculator then moves that pool forward to the age you test with the inflation option you choose.
| Inflation option | Daily benefit at 80 | Pool at 80 |
|---|---|---|
| None | $200 | $219,000 |
| 3% simple | $350 | $383,250 |
| 3% compound | $419 | $458,537 |
| 5% compound | $677 | $741,612 |
Premiums against the pool
The second figure the calculator shows is the total of premiums paid until the age you test, assuming the premium stays flat, which is the best case. The ratio of the pool to those premiums says how many dollars of potential benefit each dollar of premium buys, if a claim happens at that age. It is not a return: many policyholders never claim, some claim for a few months, and a few use the whole pool. What it gives is a common scale for two quotes with different benefits or inflation options.
Your quote at the age of a claim
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Benefit pool at age 80
$458,537
| Premiums paid until then | $75,000 |
| Pool at the claim age | $458,537 |
| Pool for each $1 of premium | $6.11 |
| Premium deductible in 2026, at most | $1,860 |
Why no price list
Search results for long-term care insurance cost are led by insurers, associations and agents, and the figures they show come from their own surveys or price samples, for one profile at one moment. Premiums are filed with state insurance departments by policy form, and they change. This site publishes no rate that it could not read at an official source; the calculator works from your quote instead, which is the figure that matters for you.
Choosing the other terms
The benefit period and the elimination period trade premium against risk the same way as in disability insurance. A longer benefit period raises the pool and the premium; a longer elimination period, counted in days of paid care before benefits begin, lowers the premium and leaves the first months to your savings. Some policies count home care days differently from facility days. Shared-care options let a couple draw on each other's pool. Test each version of the quote in the calculator with its own premium.
Premium increases
A qualified long-term care contract must be one the insurer keeps renewing (IRS Publication 525), but renewal does not freeze the price. Insurers can raise premiums for all holders of a policy form, subject to state approval, and many older policies have seen large increases. When an increase comes, contracts usually offer choices: pay it, lower the daily benefit, shorten the benefit period or drop inflation protection. Enter a higher premium in the calculator to see how an increase changes the ratio.
Tax on both sides
Within the age limit of the year, $1,860 at 55 in 2026 under Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the premium can count as a medical expense, be deducted by the self-employed or be paid from a health savings account; the deduction calculator shows what that saves. A per diem policy whose daily benefit grows above the per diem limit, $430 a day in 2026, can produce taxable benefits when care costs are lower; the benefits tax page explains when. A hybrid life policy is the main alternative for buyers who want a death benefit if care is never needed.