Long Term Care Insurance May Become a Thing of the Past (New Jersey Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog)

In the last five years, 10 of the 20 largest writers of long-term care have left the market. John Hancock isn’t leaving the long-term care business, but it is asking each state to raise the premiums for existing customers by an average 40%. The exodus and rate hikes are due to a perfect storm of historically low interest rates, policy holders living longer, and policy holders not dropping coverage at the rates the insurance companies expected. Customers unable to afford the increases will drop their coverage and possibly look to Medicaid to pay for their care.