How to Pay for Home Care
Families pay for home care privately, and a long-term care policy can help. Medicare doesn’t pay for ongoing daily help at home. Here’s how each way of paying works.
Private pay · Long-term care insurance · Medicare · Medicare Advantage · CHCPE · VA Aid and Attendance
Endurance Home Care, a Connecticut Homemaker Companion Agency (registration HCA.0002450) in Stamford, walks families through every real way to pay for home care. Families pay privately, and a long-term care insurance policy can help with the cost. Medicare doesn't pay for ongoing daily help at home, and programs like Connecticut's CHCPE and the VA's Aid and Attendance benefit each have their own rules.
Endurance is private pay. We don’t bill insurance directly, and we don’t take Medicare, Medicaid or VA benefits as payment. If there’s a long-term care insurance policy, you can use it, and we’ll help with the policy paperwork.
Programs like Connecticut’s CHCPE and the VA’s Aid and Attendance benefit can still help some families, so we’ve explained them below. For how paying for care with us works, see what home care costs and how families pay.
Private pay, insurance and Medicare at a glance
- Private pay$37 to $42 / hr
The Connecticut rate a household covers directly, from the Long Term Care Navigator 2026 figures. Families pay for the hours of care they schedule, from savings, income, help from the family, or a mix.
- Long-term care insurancePolicy terms
Frequently pays toward daily-living hours, and we keep the plan of care, the daily notes and the itemised invoices a carrier asks for. What it pays depends on the policy's own terms, so it's worth finding the policy early.
- MedicareNot for daily help
Medicare doesn't pay for ongoing daily help at home. Its home health benefit covers part-time skilled care for someone who is homebound, through a Medicare-certified agency.
What care costs in Connecticut before you choose how to pay for it
Before you work out how to pay, it helps to know what care would cost. The Long Term Care Navigator 2026 Connecticut figures put home care at about $6,864 a month for 40 hours a week, which works out to roughly $37 to $42 an hour at that schedule. The same figures put Connecticut assisted living at $9,118 a month and a semi-private nursing home room at $15,208.
Your own cost comes from the week: how many hours, which days, whether nights are part of it, and the kind of help, from company and meals to help getting washed and dressed. Home care is billed by the hour and a facility by the month, so how the two compare depends on how many hours of the day need covering.
If you’re thinking about care around the clock, here’s what 24/7 home care costs per month.
These are independent market figures, not an Endurance price list. Once we know where care is needed, the schedule and the kind of help, we’ll tell you what it would cost.
- Home care$37 to $42 / hr
- Connecticut, Long Term Care Navigator 2026
- In-home care, 40 hrs a week$6,864 / mo
- Connecticut, Long Term Care Navigator 2026
- Assisted living$9,118 / mo
- Connecticut, Long Term Care Navigator 2026
- Nursing home, semi-private room$15,208 / mo
- Connecticut, Long Term Care Navigator 2026
Private pay
How private pay works
Private pay means the family pays for the hours of care it schedules. A good place to start is the hours you can’t cover yourselves, whether that’s the mornings, the evenings or the nights. Families draw on savings, a pension, Social Security, rental income or help shared among the children, in whatever mix works for them.
At moderate hours, the figures above show why staying at home can cost less than moving to a facility. Set the schedule first, and the cost follows from it. Call our care team with the week you have in mind, and we’ll talk it through with you.
Long-term care insurance is the one policy that regularly pays for the hours Medicare doesn’t.
What it pays depends on the terms of your policy, which is why a general answer is worth less here than fifteen minutes with the document in front of somebody. Elimination periods, daily benefit limits and the definition of a qualifying need all differ from one policy to the next. Bring the policy to the consultation and we’ll read it against the schedule being planned, so what you hold and what you need are compared side by side.
long term care insurance coverage for home careWhat Medicare pays for, and what it doesn’t
Medicare is the single largest source of confusion on this subject, and the first thing most families ask about, so here’s the short answer. Medicare and most health insurance, Medigap included, don’t pay for long-term daily help at home. Medicare’s home health benefit pays for skilled, intermittent care for a limited time. It doesn’t pay for care around the clock at home, or for help with bathing, dressing or the bathroom when that’s the only care needed.
Our caregivers help with daily life at home: company, meals, the house, errands and, where it’s needed, hands-on personal care. Endurance is a licensed Homemaker Companion Agency and not a Medicare-certified home health agency, so we don’t bill Medicare. In Connecticut, our separate company, Endurance Home Health, can help with skilled nursing, home health aides and physical therapy.
| Medicare may pay for | Medicare doesn’t pay for |
|---|---|
| Skilled home health, ordered and time limited | Ongoing daily help, like company, meals and housekeeping |
| Intermittent visits under a plan of care | Care around the clock at home |
| Care tied to a qualifying medical need | Custodial help with bathing, dressing and the bathroom when that's the only help needed |
The full rule, including the two conditions for skilled care at home, is in does Medicare pay for home care.
Can a Medicare Advantage plan help?
10%
of individual plan enrollees, 2026
38%
of special needs plan enrollees, 2026
Some Medicare Advantage plans offer in-home support as a supplemental benefit. In 2026 it was offered to roughly 10 percent of individual plan enrollees and 38 percent of special needs plan enrollees, so it’s worth checking your plan, though not worth counting on. Where it’s offered, the plan sets the benefit, so the plan document has the answer. See Medicare Advantage in-home support benefits.
Connecticut Medicaid: the CHCPE program
The Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders helps eligible people keep living at home instead of moving to a nursing home. It’s a state program with its own eligibility screening, so the first question is whether the person qualifies. Screening takes time, so families who need help now can start care privately while it goes ahead.
Start with the screening
CHCPE is for people who would otherwise need nursing home care and who meet the program’s own financial and care-need rules. The state makes that decision.
If it looks like a fit
Read how eligibility and the application work before you file anything: Connecticut’s CHCPE program.
If it doesn’t fit, or you need help now
Private pay and long-term care insurance are explained above, and for veterans there’s the VA benefit below. Call our care team at (203) 936-6847 and we’ll talk through which fits before you choose a schedule.
Veterans: Aid and Attendance
If someone in the family is a veteran, this is the main VA benefit that can help pay for help at home. It’s part of the VA pension, not a health plan.
What it is
An addition to a VA pension, not a separate insurance plan
Aid and Attendance is available to VA pension recipients who meet at least one care-need requirement. Because it runs through the pension, the pension question comes first and the care question second.
Who it reaches
VA pension recipients who meet at least one of the program’s care-need requirements.
Its own path
Like CHCPE and long-term care insurance, it has its own eligibility rules, and each one is checked differently.
Programs with their own rules
CHCPE, VA Aid and Attendance and long-term care insurance each have their own eligibility rules, checked by different people on different timelines, and a family can pursue more than one at once. Private pay usually carries the schedule while any of them is being sorted out.
Connecticut Medicaid
State screening, financial and care-need rules
the CHCPE routeNew Jersey
State live-in rules, and the JACC cap and eligibility
what it costs in New JerseyVeterans
VA pension first, then the care-need requirement
the veterans routeInsurance
Policy terms, elimination period, benefit limit
the policy route
One conversation, and usually about twenty minutes to work out which routes fit your family.
Endurance is licensed in Connecticut and in New Jersey. The first conversation is free. If you have a long-term care policy, bring it and we will read it with you, because the elimination period and the daily cap are usually what decide whether the hours you want are affordable. If you don’t have anything to bring, call anyway. We’ll help you see which routes your family can use, including the programs we aren’t paid through.
Connecticut License HCA.0002450 · New Jersey License HP0435100 · Connecticut DPH License 9915786 (Endurance Home Health). Client Support Line (203) 936-6847 in Connecticut, (973) 315-5323 in New Jersey.
Questions families ask about paying
How to pay for home care
Most Connecticut families pay for home care privately, often alongside a long-term care insurance policy. For people who qualify, other Connecticut routes include the state's CHCPE program and VA Aid and Attendance. Medicare doesn't pay for ongoing daily help at home, such as company, meals, bathing and dressing. Endurance reviews whichever applies with you before a schedule is set.
Does insurance pay for home care?
Long-term care insurance frequently covers home care, and what it pays depends on the terms of the policy. Regular health insurance and Medicare don't pay for ongoing daily help at home, like company, meals, bathing and dressing. Bring the policy to the consultation and Endurance reads it with you, so the answer comes from your document rather than a general rule.
Is home care cheaper than assisted living?
Often, depending on hours. Long Term Care Navigator's 2026 Connecticut medians put 40 hours per week of in-home care near $6,864 per month versus $9,118 for assisted living and $15,208 for a semi-private nursing room. One Endurance family summed it up this way: 'the most cost effective choice was to keep her at home.'
Bring the policy. We will read it with you.
Tell us about the help at home you’re thinking about, and we’ll explain what it would cost and how families pay for it. The first conversation is free, and nothing starts until you say so.
In New Jersey, call (973) 315-5323.