Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.

As Americans live longer and longer, around 70 percent of people 65 or older will need some kind of long-term care. While some folks will only need part-time help at home to prepare meals and clean bathrooms, (26) _______ will spend months or years in assisted living or a nursing facility. The problem is that none of us knows which fate awaits us, so we're left to plan for an old age that could either be perfectly (27) _______ or cripplingly expensive. If you don't already know, the cost of long-term care in the U.S. is sky-high, and it's going up faster than inflation. The average cost of a private room in a nursing home in 2019 was $102,200 a year, (28) _______ is 57 percent more than it cost in 2004, according to Genworth Financial. In 2019, a year in an assisted living facility (29) _______ $48,612 on average nationwide, but in Washington, D.C., (30) _______, just a year of assisted living ran $135,456. Staying at home isn't necessarily cheaper, either. Hiring an hourly home health aide (based on 44 hours per week) averaged $52,624 a year in 2019, Genworth reported. (Adapt from: https://www.howstuffworks.com/)

While some folks will only need part-time help at home to prepare meals and clean bathrooms, (26) _______ will spend months or years in assisted living or a nursing facility.