Long Term Care Insurance Choices Expand for Consumers
In the 1990’s, there were over 400 different insurance companies selling medical insurance. In most states now, consumers have only 5 or 6 different medical insurance companies from which to choose. “Over the years, the long term care insurance industry has also experienced consolidation. But consumers today have at least a dozen different long term care insurance companies to choose from,” Olson explained on a recent conference call with financial planners and insurance professionals.
Not only are more companies offering long term care insurance but there are more policy choices than in previous years.
Some leading insurers sell policies that pay benefits for life. These policies never run out of benefits regardless of how long you may need long-term care. “Other leading insurers offer policies that have from $500,000 to even a million dollars of benefits. These policies would pay benefits for 8 years or more,” explained Olson. “Couples can even share policies which would extend their coverage to 16 years or more of cash benefits.”
Sales of long-term care insurance were up in 2015 for most of the leading LTC insurers. Click To Tweet“Over 100,000 people purchased long-term care insurance in 2015,” Olson shared. “Seven of the top ten long-term care insurers had an increase in sales in 2015.” Five of these seven LTC insurance companies had double digit sales growth. “One of the leading long-term care insurance companies had over a 75% increase in sales in 2015. More long term care insurance choices combined with increased consumer awareness are behind this increase in sales,” Olson concluded.