Health enrollment data paints misleading picture: Forman

By Allison Bell

July 01, 2015 at 07:30 AM

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A long-time long-term care insurance (LTCI) specialist says fuzzy health insurance enrollment terminology and data may make trying to sell private long-term care (LTC) solutions even more difficult.

Stephen D. Forman, the co-author of "The Advisor's Guide to Long-Term Care" (2nd Ed.), a book published by National Underwriter, has written about health insurance enrollee counting in a new analysis posted by the Center for Long-Term Care Reform.

Forman argues that, since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) took effect, government agencies and research organizations such as RAND Corp. have blurred distinctions between having private health coverage and having Medicaid, and between having true private health coverage and subsidized PPACA exchange plan coverage.

Forman also argues that many of the consumer policymakers are now defining as insured, including Medicaid enrollees, are severely underinsured.

If analysts continue to ignore traditional distinctions between public and private options, that might affect how the consumers who call insurance agents for retirement and LTC planning advice think, Forman says.

"It may prove difficult to reverse the consequences of years of such ingrained thought," Forman says.

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