Long-Term Care Insurance Claims Rise 12%: AALTCI

By Allison Bell

News January 15, 2019 at 10:31 AM

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Long-term care insurance (LTCI) providers paid about $10.3 billion in U.S. long-term care claims in 2018, or about 12% more than they paid in 2016, according to the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance.

The Westlake Village, California-based group bases those figures on results from surveys of LTCI providers.

The number of people on claim rose 2.7% between 2017 and 2018, to 303,000, according to AALTCI.

The average claim per person on claim increased 9%, to an average of about $34,000 per person, according to ThinkAdvisor calculations based on AALTCI data.

In 2017, the claim total was 6.4% higher than in 2016, the number of people on claim was up 5.4%, and the average claim per claimant was up just 1%.

About 7 million people now have stand-alone LTCI coverage in force, according to AALTCI.

Jesse Slome, AALTCI's director, noted in a statement about the new data that one limitation is a lack of data on claims paid in connection with life insurance policies and annuity contracts that offer long-term care benefits.

"The total value of benefits paid is undoubtedly larger because today there are thousands of individuals who own linked benefit life insurance or annuity policies that can also provide LTC benefits," Slome said.