Feb 19 2014
Prices to buy long-term care insurance have risen during the last few years after insurance company mistakes came to light.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Long-Term Care Insurance Rising
For about 40 years now, millions of Americans have been buying long-term care insurance policies designed to help cover the costs of nursing home and assisted-living care as they age or become disabled. As the U.S. population grows older, that type of coverage will become more important, experts say. Yet costs for long-term care insurance have been rising dramatically in recent years, the result of numerous factors including miscalculations by the insurance companies that have sold policies (Blackwell, 2/17).
In the meantime, one family's long-term care coverage lapse is examined -
The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Long-Term-Care Policy Lapsed, But Son Didn't Know
For more than 10 years, (David and Anne Pirron) paid premiums, about $400 a month, for a long-term-care policy offered by John Hancock Life Insurance Co. Their son, Michael Pirron, had helped them research a policy, and later he was added as a third-party designee so that he also would get notices about changes to the plan. "About a year-and-a-half ago, my mother had a major health issue," said Michael Pirron, the CEO at Image Makers, a Richmond-based technology consulting company. "Realizing my father was not managing my mother's health well, I called the long-term-care (policy)." To his surprise and dismay, Pirron said he was told the plan had been canceled seven months before because of nonpayment (Smith, 2/16).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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