Description: Description * Coinsurance has not been widely offered as a benefit reduction option to offset long-term care premium rate increases. This article uses an illustrative example to evaluate the potential impact coinsurance could have on an insurance carrier's future claim liabilities and a policyholder's premium rates. It also explores various considerations insurance carriers, regulators, and policyholders should think about when evaluating whether coinsurance is the right option.

Description: Preview of the December 2007 issue of the LTC Section news, including articles on individual claims, retrospective reserve testing, population health management, Alzheimers, psychiatric medication, and the latest LTC Experience Committee report.

Description: The LTC insurance sector faces a crisis of credibility due to recent company failures. Market evidence indicates reduced confidence in the reserve sufficiency of companies with large legacy LTC exposures. Disclosures show the persistence of problematic actuarial and investment return assumptions. Institutional backstops exist but vary by jurisdiction and have elements which can exacerbate rather than ameliorate problems. Fortunately, LTC liabilities accrue over long time periods. An industry supported incentive structure can be conceived that would establish stronger standards and encourage greater reserving in exchange for a more reliable and rational backstop.

Description: Discussion of a newly released LTC experience study, including description of data and its increased scope compared to the prior report, reporting specifications, and findings.

Description: In this article, we describe new approaches to long-term care financing that rely on home equity release and we address several of the challenges mentioned above. While these approaches stand to help expand the potential for long-term care financing to middle-class Americans, even these approaches don’t address a large swath of the U.S. with less privilege, who have little or no home equity. We will discuss the product design, marketing, pricing and risk management of these new approaches and potential behavioral factors that should be considered. The article builds on a growing body of academic research to which the authors have actively contributed. We want to share the key insights of this international work in market research, economics, and actuarial studies to stimulate more research in this area.

Description: Recommendation to measure the risk for the components of combination Life/LTC products.

Description: You really can have it all: readily available and relevant information derived from consistent and understood data. Getting at the Truth requires a good datawarehouse design and an appropriate business data model. Add a powerful and flexible Web–based analytical interface to get at the data and success in the pursuit of Truth will happen.

Description: Long-term care policy buyouts have been discussed within the industry lately as an additional policyholder option alongside a premium rate increase. This article discusses potential advantages and disadvantages of long-term care policy buyouts from the perspective of insurance carriers, regulators, and policyholders. It also explores certain key actuarial considerations relating to long-term care policy buyouts including potential approaches to valuing a buyout, adverse selection, and reinsurance.

Description: To penetrate the market of those who today are concerned about future long-term care needs, LTCI providers will need to combine strategies for financial sustainability with the consumer- driven product design focus of the early to mid-1990s.

Description: Stakeholders in a specific state (Minnesota) were interviewed about the potential value -- and obstacles -- of a catastrophic backstop program to handle long term care (LTC) financing needs. The design would entail a payroll deduction which would produce a fund to pay LTC expenses once a deductible period (of 1 to 4 years, depending on income) was reached. This design was believed to encourage enrollees to cover the front end better than done today, whether by private insurance or other means.