Long-Term Care (LTC) Insurance

Medicare covers only limited skilled care and does not pay for extended custodial care — Medicare is an acute-care program: Part A covers skilled nursing facility care only after a qualifying hospital stay and only for a limited benefit period, and it does not pay for custodial care — the personal help with bathing, dressing, and feeding that makes up most long-term care costs. This gap is the fundamental reason private long-term care insurance exists. The exam objective AH-V.1a frames long-term care insurance as filling exactly this hole in Medicare coverage.

National insurance concept

Medi-Cal long-term care is available only to applicants who meet strict income and asset limits — Medi-Cal is California's needs-based Medicaid program: long-term care coverage is available only to applicants who satisfy strict income and asset eligibility thresholds. Because most middle-class seniors do not qualify, they either spend down assets to become eligible or rely on private long-term care insurance to protect savings. AH-V.1a identifies Medi-Cal eligibility as one of the two forces, along with Medicare's limits, that create the demand for LTC coverage.

CA-specific example