People with long-term care insurance should brace themselves for double-digit premium increases.

The average cost of a long-term care policy has risen 80 percent since 2007, when the average annual premium was less than $2,000, according to industry statistics. Now costs have risen to more than $3,500 a year and large insurance companies, like John Hancock Life Insurance Co. and Genworth Financial Inc., say they are looking to make back some of their costs by raising their rates.

Many insurance companies who entered the market a decade ago were trying to build their businesses so they offered low rates for this type of insurance. But now, a decade later, they have come to realize that they didn't ask enough to cover costs. They didn't realize how many people—8 million Americans—would take advantage of these policies. They also didn't take into consideration the longevity of most people.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.