One obstacle to selling more long-term care insurance (LTCI) may be consumer uncertainty about whether the insurers are in the LTCI market to stay.
Jeffrey Brown, a finance professor at the University of Illinois, and two colleagues have reported that finding in an LTCI paper published in Health Affairs, a health finance and health care delivery academic journal.
The researchers used a survey of about 3,000 U.S. households whose members are interviewed regularly over the Internet.
The researchers looked at many factors that might affect demand for private LTCI coverage.
Other researchers have found that consumers show a strong interest in the idea of owning private LTCI.
But Brown and colleagues found that many forces reduce the likelihood that consumers will actually end up owning private LTCI. The researchers found, for example, that many consumers believe they can use savings or informal support from relatives to handle their long-term care (LTC) needs.
The researchers also looked at how much consumers trust LTCI vendors.