A hip fracture. A stroke. A cancer diagnosis that requires ongoing in-home chemotherapy. These aren’t abstract possibilities — they’re the everyday realities that send millions of Americans into a health care system that’s expensive, impersonal, and far from home. Home health care insurance offers a better path: professional medical services delivered in your own home, with financial benefits that help absorb the cost.

What Is Home Health Care Insurance?

Home health care insurance is a supplemental policy that pays daily cash benefits when you require covered medical services delivered in your home. It is not a replacement for your primary health insurance — it’s an additional financial layer that helps cover costs your health plan may not fully address, including nursing visits, physical therapy, and home health aide services.

The ManhattanLife Home Health Care Select plan, part of the Lighthouse Series, is underwritten by Standard Life and Casualty Insurance Company and ManhattanLife Insurance and Annuity Company — together serving policyholders for over 175 years. The plan is built around a simple idea: when you’re recovering from an illness, injury, or chronic condition, you should be able to do it in the comfort and dignity of your own home.

How the Home Health Care Select Plan Works

The plan pays a daily benefit — up to $450 per day depending on your plan tier — for covered home health services provided by an approved practitioner. Benefits are payable for up to 365 days per benefit period. You choose from three tiers: Classic, Premier, or Deluxe — each offering progressively higher daily benefit amounts.

The plan features simple underwriting, issue ages from 45 to 89, and is guaranteed renewable for life. A 30-day free-look period gives you time to review the policy after purchase and return it for a full refund if it doesn’t meet your needs.

What Does the Home Health Care Select Plan Cover?

The plan covers eight categories of skilled home health care services, all delivered by an approved practitioner in your home. Daily benefit amounts are capped per service type and vary by plan tier:

Maximum benefit period is 365 days and may vary by state. Benefits are subject to eligibility conditions and must be provided by an approved Home Health Care Select Practitioner. See the policy and/or outline of coverage for state-specific details.

Home Health Care Aide & Prescription Drug Benefits

Beyond skilled nursing and therapy services, the plan also covers two additional categories of day-to-day support that are often overlooked — but critically important during recovery.

Home Health Care Aide

When you need non-medical assistance at home — help with bathing, dressing, meal preparation, or mobility — a home health care aide benefit fills that gap. The plan pays a daily benefit for each day you require aide services in your home, with a maximum benefit period of 60 days.

Prescription Drug Benefit

Available in most states, the prescription drug benefit provides a per-prescription payment to help offset medication costs during your recovery period. The benefit pays $10 for generic drugs and $25 for brand-name drugs, up to the annual maximum.

Restoration of Benefits

One of the more valuable — and often overlooked — features of the Home Health Care Select plan is the restoration of benefits. If you recover fully and no benefits have been paid or required for 180 consecutive days, the maximum benefit period for both Home Health Care Select and Aide benefits is fully restored. That means the plan can potentially protect you through multiple separate health events across your lifetime, not just one.

Optional Riders: Customize Your Coverage

The Home Health Care Select plan can be enhanced with a menu of optional riders, each designed to address specific financial risks that commonly arise alongside a home health care need.

• ✓
  Routine Annual Physical Examination Rider — One benefit per year for a routine annual physical, subject to a 12-month waiting period. Not available in Colorado and Virginia.
• ✓
  Accidental Death & Dismemberment Rider — Benefits for accidental death ($10,000) or loss of limb, finger, toe, or sight from a covered accident. Death or dismemberment must occur within 90 days of the covered accident. Lifetime maximum $10,000.
• ✓
  Home Medical Equipment Rider — $100 per piece for medically necessary home equipment prescribed by your physician while receiving covered home health care services. Covers mobility aids, transfer equipment, bathroom safety items, and personal medical equipment. Lifetime maximum $500.
• ✓
  Ambulance Benefit Rider — $200 per one-way trip (up to 4 trips per year) for emergency ambulance transportation, including facility-to-facility transport when care is provided during the trip. Lifetime maximum $2,500. Not available in Colorado.
• ✓
  Accident Expense Benefit Rider — Benefits for fractures, dislocations, or knee ligament tears treated in a hospital ER, urgent care facility, or physician’s office within 48 hours of the covered accident. Two benefit options available (Option 1 or Option 2). Lifetime maximum $10,000.

AD&D Rider — Dismemberment Benefits:

Accident Expense Rider — Benefit Amounts:

Who Should Consider Home Health Care Insurance?

Home health care insurance is especially relevant for adults who are approaching or in the years when recovery from illness or injury is more complex, more prolonged, and more expensive. Here’s who benefits most:

Adults 45 and Older Planning Ahead

The plan’s issue age starts at 45 for a reason. The earlier you secure coverage, the lower your premium and the broader your protection window. A policy purchased in your 50s can be in force — and paying benefits — decades later when the need is greatest.

People Managing Chronic or Serious Conditions

Cancer patients receiving in-home chemotherapy. Stroke survivors working with speech pathologists. Patients with respiratory conditions who need at-home respiratory therapy. The Home Health Care Select plan was specifically built to address these situations, covering specialized services that most health insurance plans severely limit.

Those Recovering from Surgery or Injury

Joint replacement, back surgery, hip fractures — all require weeks or months of in-home physical and occupational therapy. The plan’s 365-day benefit period and therapy coverage make it an ideal companion policy for anyone facing an elective or emergency surgical recovery.

Individuals Who Want to Stay Home — Not in a Facility

Research consistently shows that patients recover faster and with better outcomes when they recover at home rather than in skilled nursing facilities. Home health care insurance makes that choice financially viable — covering the professional services needed to recover safely outside of an institutional setting.

The Bottom Line

Home health care insurance isn’t just for the elderly. It’s for anyone who wants the freedom to recover at home rather than in a nursing facility — and who understands that freedom comes with a cost that standard health insurance rarely covers in full.

The ManhattanLife Home Health Care Select plan offers a flexible, affordable, and comprehensive solution. Three plan tiers let you match your budget to your benefit level. Simple underwriting, guaranteed renewability for life, and a 30-day free-look period make it accessible and low-risk to explore. And the optional riders — for ambulance, equipment, physical exams, and accident expenses — let you build a genuinely customized layer of protection.

If you’re between the ages of 45 and 89 and want the peace of mind that comes with knowing professional care can come to you — not the other way around — the Home Health Care Select plan deserves a serious look.