Not having a good Chicago long term care insurance policy in place nearly put our family into bankruptcy.  My father had very little coverage under Medicare.  When it got to the point that we simply couldn’t take care of him on our own anymore, we thought that we could just transfer him into an assisted living facility so he would be able to get the care that he needed, but his insurance wouldn’t cover it.  I decided to look into some of the local assisted living communities anyway, just to see if there was potentially something that we could work out in lieu of the insurance, but it really seemed like it would be impossible.  The “going rate” for some of the facilities I visited was more than I bring home in a month, and that fee was just the tip of the iceberg – costs went up dramatically depending on exactly what type of care the person was in need of.  I didn’t really have any other choice though, I moved him into, what I thought was the most realistic facility in terms of cost and paid for the first month, now I’m going to see if I can get him some supplemental coverage that will help for the future.