Because of the reasons mentioned above, and because we don't have a lot of savings or cash flow in retirement, we are setting aside enough in safe investments to cover two years of the going rate for nursing home care in our area for each of us. If we don't need it, great; we have an estate. If we do, we can self-pay for LTC or similar levels of care (home care, assisted living) for up to two years or more.
If the stay is longer than that, then sorry, but we've done our best, and we will then go on Medicaid, plus our SS and my eensie pension. Many good nursing homes will accept patients with two years of self-funding assured and then keep them with Medicaid funding afterwards.
We could possibly turn over every penny of assets we have to a local CCRC, but all those pictures on the websites of happy, sociable residents doing their gardening and water aerobics and ceramics freak us out. We would happily do that on our own if interested, but we really don't want to be in a situation where someone is badgering us to do this. Instead, we hope to maintain our ornery, quirky, antisocial lives in our own home until we are carried out on stretchers with sheets over our faces.
(That's the goal, anyway.) DH's parents moved to an apartment retirement community with a staffer whose title was "Director of Fun." After learning this, we promised one another that we would drink hemlock before living in a setting with a Director of Fun.
(Although there is a local Episcopalian CCRC with a bar/pub, which did make DH's ears perk up a bit, devout atheist that he is.)
Sorry, but we don't have millions lying around for an alternative. This is the most honorable solution we can afford.
The continuous execution of a sound strategy gives you the benefit of the strategy. That's what it's all about. --Rick Ferri