Two nonprofit organizations have asked insurance regulators at the Minnesota Department of Commerce to take a close look at short-term care insurance (STCI).
Bonnie Burns of California Health Advocates and Amy Bach of United Policyholders made that request in a letter sent to Mike Rothman, the Minnesota department's commissioner, in connection with the department's recent hearing on the future of long-term care insurance (LTCI).
An STCI policy is a product that pays for home care, nursing home care, or other forms of ongoing, non-acute care for periods of less than one year.
Low interest rates and problems with predicting policyholder behavior have plagued many LTCI issuers in recent years.
Because the performance of an STCI policy is less dependent on long-range assumptions about consumer and market behavior, some members of the LTCI community have suggested that insurers should focus more on selling STCI products.
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