Congress is turning its’ attention to long-term care insurance producing information about how such insurance may help consumers make informed decisions for their long-term care needs.

U.S. News & World Report reports on LTCI, which “is not health insurance but protection against progressive deterioration that renders people incapable of caring for themselves physically or mentally.” The magazine notes that “the cost of dealing with these conditions can be staggering, depleting life savings and forcing people into poverty” and describes this type of insurance as “an expensive and complicated product… sold by a shrinking number of financially challenged insurers and subject to differing state rules that aren’t always effectively enforced.”

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Today, U.S. Senators Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) of the Special Committee on Aging examined the long-term care insurance industry. The high cost of long-term care and the current economic instability are creating significant financial planning challenges for baby-boomers, seniors, and individual states. The committee discussed the industry’s current limitations and how to prepare for the growing number of seniors who will be in need of long-term care.

“When planning their financial future, many Americans overlook the possibility of long-term care,” said Martinez, the lead Republican on the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “The number of seniors requiring long-term care is on the rise, and these expenses could cause a person to quickly deplete their finances and become dependent on Medicaid. Personal planning, such as purchasing a long-term care insurance policy, offers a viable way to save seniors’ assets and reduce a potentially large future financial burden.”

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A new model for the funding of long-term care for older people is needed in the UK, delegates at the Actuarial Profession’s Health and Care Conference in Glasgow heard today.

In a workshop titled ‘Who cares?’ Reforming long-term care, University of Birmingham Health Services Management Centre co-director Jon Glasby said the current system placed an unfair burden on individuals.

Professor Glasby said alternative methods of funding long-term care that needed to be discussed included:

- introducing compulsory long-term care insurance;
- abolishing long-term care fees;
- drawing on value of homes through equity release.

Professor Glasby said he hoped the government’s Green Paper on care and support, due this year, would provide an opportunity to stimulate debate on the issue and lead to an overhaul of the system.

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