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August 20, 2019 at 07:00 PM
The Maryland Insurance Administration attracted just two policyholders today to a public hearing on three long-term care insurance (LTCI) issuers’ rate increase requests.
The issuers making the requests were John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Prudential Insurance Company of America and UNUM Life Insurance Company of America.
(Related: Maryland to Hold Public Hearing on 3 LTCI Issuers’ Rate Hike Requests)
The Maryland Insurance Administration streamed the hearing live on the web, through its Facebook page.
John Hancock is part of Manulife Financial Corp.; Prudential, part of Prudential Financial Inc.; and UNUM, part of UNUM Group.
Maryland caps LTCI premium increases at 15%.
Maryland regulators held the hearing as LTCI issuers were working to persuade state insurance regulators to adopt more uniform LTCI rate increase request review standards, and as Harry Markopolos, an independent accounting investigator, was clashing with insurance regulators and others over how well LTCI reinsurance business at General Electric Company has informed investors about the adequacy of its LTCI reinsurance reserves.
(Related: New NAIC Long-Term Care Insurance Squad May Keep Some Work Private)
The company representatives at the hearing were apologetic about the rate increase requests.
“We truly regret having to take rate increase actions,” said Marie Roche, an assistant vice president with John Hancock.
John Lemoine, an assistant vice president at Unum, said Unum has absorbed many LTCI-related losses voluntarily. He said the company had added $750 million to LTCI reserves in 2018.
“We’re making significant contributions to support this business,” Lemoine said.
