Long-term health care is the greatest health expense older Americans face. This is true because it is the only major health care expense that Medicare supplements or individual health insurance will not cover.
Based on our own 2020 survey, nursing home care in upstate New York cost upwards of $170,000 per year. Faced with such exorbitant costs, many people can only hope to qualify for Medicaid. They are then forced to deplete their assets and dispose of possessions that they have earned through a lifetime of hard work.