A little-noticed provision of last year’s health reform law created a public option for long-term care insurance. The Community Living Assistance Services and Support plan (CLASS for short) aims to fill the country’s yawning gap in long-term care (LTC) protection by offering modestly-priced coverage that emphasizes more flexible, community-based care over nursing homes. But the [...] [...more]
If you have long-term care insurance or have been shopping for it, 2010 has been a year of unnerving sticker shock. Major insurance companies have been seeking rate hikes as high as 40 percent on existing policies, and many carriers are reevaluating their products and pricing. One major carrier – Metlife – decided to stop [...] [...more]
Harry Margolis is an elder law attorney who regularly helps clients plan for possible risk that they’ll need long-term care. He’s helped many of them select a long-term care insurance policy, but these days he’s ambivalent about how to counsel them. Margolis has seen numerous cases where long-term care insurance has protected clients from financial [...] [...more]
If you have long-term care insurance, brace for the possibility of a steep increase in premiums this year. Some of the largest long-term care (LTC) underwriters are asking state regulators for large increases on some policies this year. The current ultra-low interest rate environment is a key reason for the rate hikes. Low rates have [...] [...more]
A plan to create a government-sponsored long-term care insurance program for consumers made it into the Affordable Health Care for America Act approved last weekend by the House of Representatives, and experts believe it will also be included in the Senate’s bill. Called the Community Living Services and Support Act (CLASS), the bill would create a consumer-funded national [...] [...more]
