Many individuals cannot afford LTC insurance but still want a limited amount of coverage to help them either recover or give them extra funds to use before having to start paying for costs in a nursing home or in their home out of their savings. Usually these types of plans have benefits that will be paid out for a maximum of 1 year or less (depending on the benefit period selected at time of purchase). Short-term care plans can provide nursing home benefits, home health care benefits or a combination of both. Many times these plans also have more lenient underwriting that traditional LTC plans which allows even consumers who have been turned down for traditional LTC to qualify for a short-term care plan. A short term care plan can help offset some of these extreme costs and give the family time to make plans for the future. The benefits from a short term care plan are fairly flexible and have a much lower cost than traditional LTC plans.