Description: The article provides an overview of the federal tax treatment of long-term care insurance contracts, including a brief history of the tax treatment of long-term care insurance, the requirements that must be satisfied in order to be treated as qualified long-term care insurance under the Internal Revenue Code, and a brief discussion of qualified long-term care combination products and chronic and terminal illness accelerated death benefits offered under life insurance contracts.

Description: The NAIC Innovation work group has set out 10 ideas for improving the LTC insurance market. This article discusses and critiques those ideas.

Description: Preview of the LTC section's sessions at the SOA Annual Meeting in October 2008, including claims management, litigation and public relations, preparing for PBA and stochastic modeling, pricing, research studies, and securitizations and reinsurance.

Description: Editor's comments on current issues in the LTC market such as Lyme Disease and new leadership in Washington, announcememt of the upcoming LTCI conference, and results from the latest LTC Section member satisfaction survey.

Description: An examination of LTCI rate increases from three different perspectives: the insurance company, the policyholder, and the insurance department.

Description: Observations from the author's experiences auditing blocks of LTCI business.

Description: Article on the history of the Long Term Care Discussion Group, a Washington DC-based venue for discussing long-term care and related issues for over 20 years.

Description: Announcement of changes to the LTC Section, and a preview of the articles in the December 2009 issue of Long Term Care News, with topics including Health care reform and LTC vs. Medicaid.

Description: A suggestion to review and reassess LTC pricing of the last three decades, in light of dangerously inadequate ratesetting in the early years, and the NAIC's introduction of a model rate stability law.

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.