"It's hard to predict, but the survey offers a way to understand the specific rates in your area and how fast the prices are rising," Bua says. (The survey includes an interactive map that can be used to explore prices for specific services by state: http://bit.ly/PYlZ9R)
How we'll foot the bill for long-term care remains one of the big healthcare policy conundrums.
Private insurance carriers have been dropping out of the LTC insurance market in recent years, and policyholders have been hit with waves of double-digit rate hikes. This year the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance reports that prices for couples are up slightly, and have jumped significantly for single women–– the result of new gender-based pricing (women live longer).
For example, a 55-year-old single woman in good health could expect to pay an initial annual premium of $2,300 for a policy that includes 3 percent annual compound growth in inflation protection for benefits.
Last fall a politically divided Congressional Commission on Long-Term Care offered up two competing visions. Left-leaning commissioners issued a report proposing expansion of Medicare to cover long-term care, while conservatives advocated tax incentives and regulatory reforms aimed at stimulating wider use of private LTC insurance policies.
Since then, several promising policy initiatives have been launched by insurance industry trade groups, Washington policy experts and professional actuaries that seem to point toward a hybrid solution including expansion of private insurance and some form of public safety net, possibly Medicare expansion.
A commonsense compromise is something we should all get behind, no matter our location.