A longtime consumer advocate says it may be time for state insurance regulators to look at consumer protections and disclosure requirements for life and annuity products that include long-term care (LTC) benefits.
Bonnie Burns, a consumer representative at California Health Advocate, talks about LTC hybrid requirements in a comment on a review of the consumer disclosures section of the Model Act for Long-Term Care Insurance.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) developed the model. A subgroup at the NAIC’s Senior Issues Task Force is conducting the review.
Some brokers have concerns about the design of hybrid products and agent knowledge of the products as well as hybrid product disclosure rules, Burns writes in the comment letter.
Burns notes that many of the products combine LTC benefits with universal life or whole life coverage.
The NAIC’s long-term care insurance (LTCI) model exempts life products from some requirements, and it leaves out some provisions that might be unique to life products, Burns says.