The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance is fighting to make consumers aware of the need for protection against long-term care (LTC) risk this month. This in the face of the chilly reception issuers of stand-alone long-term care insurance (LTCI) are getting from investors and insurance regulators.
The new Long-Term Care Awareness Month campaign started Monday.
AALTCI and other insurance industry groups, including the 3in4 Association and Life Happens, have struggled for years to persuade that LTCI could help families plan for catastrophic nursing home and home care bills. Now, the coverage is helping hundreds of thousands of American families with long-term care costs.
Jesse Slome, AALTCI's director, noted in the announcement of the latest awareness campaign that the group has been organizing the Long-Term Care Awareness Month campaigns and similar campaigns since 2001.
This year, AALTCI is distributing awareness month banner artwork. Insurance advisors and marketing organizations are trying to amplify the campaign by posting social media posts using hash tags such as #LongTermCareAwareness, #LongTermCareAwarenessMonth and #LTCAwarenessMonth.
"An effort such as Awareness Month achieves success when it happens on its own," Slome said in the campaign announcement. "I am personally so pleased when I see posts or see national marketing organizations focusing on the month."
The Background
Issuers of the stand-alone LTCI policies promoted the products heavily from the 1970s through the late 1990s.
But the issuers turned out to be too optimistic about earnings on their investments on bonds, and inaccurate about how tightly consumers would hold on to LTCI policies, even in the face of waves of big premium increases.
Today, LTCI issuers are helping hundreds of thousands of Americans pay for long-term care.
