56% Overestimate Long-term Care Insurance Costs

More than half admit to not being familiar with LTCI products; just 5 percent own LTCI.

Insurance Networking News, January 28, 2013

Chris McMahon

Most Americans significantly overestimate the cost of long-term care insurance, according to InsuranceQuotes.com, predicting the average annual premium for a healthy 55-year-old couple to cost $7,000 per year or more. According to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, the actual cost is $2,700 per year.

“Long-term care insurance can be a critically important part of a long-term financial plan, but only if people take the time to explore different options and get educated about what makes sense for them,” said John Egan, editor in chief, InsuranceQuotes.com.

Other survey highlights:

• 56 percent of Americans overestimated the cost

• 20 percent underestimated the cost

• 16 percent correctly estimated it as ranging between $2,000 and $3,000 per year

According to the survey results, more than half (53 percent) are either “not too familiar” or “not at all familiar” (26 percent) with long-term care insurance; 47 percent said they would consider buying long-term care insurance and 5 percent said they already have it.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI), which obtained telephone interviews with 1,001 adults in the continental United States. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, the company said.

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