{"id":108,"date":"2021-12-07T22:10:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T22:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law-oh.com\/?p=108"},"modified":"2022-01-05T20:25:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T20:25:22","slug":"the-coming-collapse-of-long-term-care-health-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law-oh.com\/the-coming-collapse-of-long-term-care-health-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Collapse of Long-Term Care Health Insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"
Routine estimates predict that about 50 percent of aging adults will require long-term care at some stage of their lives. If you are an adult 65 or more, the percentage moves up to 70 percent. However, the demand for long-term care far outnumbers an affordable or even existing supply. For years the private sector long-term care insurers have been fleeing the marketplace. Americans who currently carry long-term care insurance are a small fraction, about 7 percent, adults over 50 years of age. There is a private sector inability to meet Americans’ overwhelming long-term care needs at an affordable price. The US healthcare system’s long-term care options are rapidly faltering as it is impossibly expensive, inefficient, and a poor performer for both seniors and industry.<\/p>\n
Long-term care provides a broad array of supports and services to elderly patients and the disabled in daily life activities. These activities include bathing, toileting, dressing, transferring, and eating. Long-term care is also support for patients who have Alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Providers of long-term care operate in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and private homes. Fewer than one in thirty Americans own a long-term care (LTC<\/a>) insurance policy, and only about seven percent are adults are over the age of 50. Despite the aging US population, the raw figure of 7.5 million LTC insured has barely moved since 2008. According to prospect.org<\/a>, these statistics come as no surprise as LTC insurance premiums keep increasing while average policy benefits decrease.<\/p>\n When long-term care became part of the health care insurance industry in the 1970s, there was a wild mispricing error due to poor actuaries, which severely underestimated the cost of such plans. Subsequently, some insurers have abandoned the market altogether. In the year 2000, there were 100 policy providers; there are fewer than a dozen today, and it is harder than ever to become qualified. Insurers strain to deny policy applications to as many people as possible.<\/p>\n