Regulator calls for a long-term care planning shift

The head of the Long Term Care Innovation Subgroup says creating a savings mentality has to be part of improving the U.S. long-term care planning system.

Teresa Miller, the Pennsylvania insurance commissioner, talked about an effort to shift the country to a long-term care savings mentality in a document prepared for a subgroup meeting held in December.

The subgroup is an arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a Kansas City-based group for state insurance regulators.

Miller, the chair of the subgroup, said managers of traditional pension funds had to overcome the idea that the “defined benefit pension plan does it all,” and move toward encouraging workers to save for their own retirement using 401(k) plans.

The long-term care finance community needs to follow a similar path, to get past overly ambitious long-term care insurance strategies that created toxic blocks of business and unaffordable premiums, Miller told the subgroup.

Related: NAIC seeks long-term care insurer insolvency comments