Is Long Term Healthcare Insurance Necessary? 
Any type of insurance involves risk , and a synonym for risk is `` chance '' . There is a chance that you may need long term care services someday . It could be because you had a surgery that requires extensive rehab , you were diagnosed with an illness that requires long term treatment , you got Alzheimer 's or dementia and could not be trusted alone , or you simply lost the strength to care for yourself . Whether or not you need to plan for that contingency probably depends on how drastically that would affect you . If you have very little income and assets , Medicaid will cover you when your assets have been spent down . If you have a very large amount of income and assets , you may be able to pay for the care yourself . It is those in the middle who have the most to consider . For some , long term healthcare will be necessary when they look at the big picture . For others , it wo n't . it is really impossible to answer that question for anyone else . 