The cost of long-term care insurance

The long-term care insurance industry is stumbling under “sky-high premium increases,” forcing many seniors to “make some unpleasant choices,” said Walecia Konrad in CBSNews.com. Today, just a dozen companies offer coverage, down from about 1,000 in 2002, and many policyholders have seen their premiums double in the past two years. What happened? Insurers “underestimated the amount they would pay in claims for runaway nursing-home costs and, because of longer life spans, the length of time they would have to pay them.” Given how fast premiums are climbing, policyholders should reassess their coverage selections and reconsider them if their needs have changed. Another option might be hybrid care policies, which can be paired with permanent life insurance policies.