DAILY NEWS CLIP: January 27, 2025

CT long-term care insurance costs are skyrocketing, strangling consumers


CT Mirror – Sunday, January 26, 2025
By Jenna Carlesso, Dave Altimari, Katy Golvala, and Andrew Brown

The price hikes began in 2007, modest at first, then exploding in size.

By last summer, the long-term care insurance plan Steve Krasinski paid $750 a year for in 1994 had ballooned to $6,400.

And that’s after he slashed his benefits that help cover home care and nursing home stays. Had Krasinski made no changes to his policy, he would now be paying more than $13,000, nearly 18 times the original cost.

Although he has reached an age where he’s more likely to need that coverage, another premium increase will probably push him to abandon the plan. His wife, who took out a $700 policy 30 years ago, faced similar cost hikes and now pays $5,940 annually.

“We felt that, OK, we’ll help protect ourselves, and we’ll save the state some aggravation. This will take care of us,” said Krasinski, 88. “I feel completely let down.”

“If I keep this up, I’m going to go broke. I wish I never bought the policy.”

Krasinski is one of nearly 100,000 people in Connecticut who have long-term care insurance, coverage that, depending on the policy, supports skilled in-home care, rehabilitation therapy, assisted living, nursing home stays and respite care.

Many purchased the plans in the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s with the understanding that the benefits would be available decades later when they might need them. The policies also help people protect their assets, so they don’t have to spend down their savings to qualify for Medicaid, which covers a majority of long-term care services in the U.S.

But in recent years, the annual cost of maintaining these plans has skyrocketed due to miscalculations by insurers on how long people would live, the price of care and how many would need it. Policyholders complain of dramatic rate increases, often exceeding 50% and, for a few dozen people, as high as 174%, a Connecticut Mirror investigation has found.

As costs rise and consumers are squeezed, grievances filed with the Connecticut Insurance Department have mounted. The office received more than 700 complaints in the last six years about long-term care insurance, mostly rising premiums, according to records reviewed by the CT Mirror.

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