Long Term Insurance

To reduce their financial risk, most insurers have tightened underwriting standards. Many plans now refuse to cover patients with insulin-dependent diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease or a history of strokes.





And those who do qualify often face hefty annual premiums. In 2002, a policy offering a $150 daily benefit for four years, with a 90-day deductible and protection against inflation, cost an average of $1,134 for a 50-year-old, $2,346 for a 65-year-old and $7,572 for a 79-year-old, according to American’s Health Insurance Plans, a Washington-based trade association.



To minimize the sticker shock, insurers have been rolling out more flexible plans that let customers choose from an array of options related to the benefit term, daily benefits, deductibles and inflation protection. Others are adding case-management services and other bells and whistles to make their products attractive to a broader swath of customers.



Insurers are also chasing opportunities in the small but growing market for employer-based long-term-care coverage.





According to MetLife, more employers are offering workers plans that help them care for elderly dependents.





“People are sitting at their desks, juggling phone calls, trying to find out how to take care of Mom,” says MetLife President and COO C. Robert Henrikson.





Some 6,600 employers now offer long-term-care plans, up from 3,500 in 2000, according to Limra International, a Windsor, Conn.-based association that provides research, consulting, and other services to insurance and financial services companies. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that, as of 2003, 13 percent of full-time, private-industry employees had the option of buying coverage through their employers.





Traditionally, long-term-care insurance has been a voluntary benefit paid for by the employee in exchange for lower group rates. But a number of insurers have started rolling out products that let employers pay some of the tab.