LTC Insurance - Pooled Benefits

[REWahoo]

New Strategies Limit LTC-Insurance Costs
More couples are turning to pooled benefits to make long-term-care insurance affordable

February 2006

THERE’ S GOOD NEWS and bad news when it comes to buying long-term-care insurance this year. First, the good news: Most states now have laws making it tough for insurers to raise rates in the future on policies they’re selling now. Now the bad news: As states have cracked down on future premium hikes, insurers have boosted the price of new policies by 20% to 40% over the past few years. The price of plans with longer benefit periods—especially ones guaranteeing lifetime payouts—has jumped dramatically....

...But there’s an increasingly popular way for married couples to reduce the benefit period and their cost: a shared-care policy. Most companies now offer this shared benefit, which gives couples a pool of money to work with. If both husband and wife buy a three-year policy and one only needs care for one year, for example, that leaves five years of benefits for the other spouse. The policies usually cost about 10% more than a regular policy with the same benefit period (the price difference varies depending on the ages of the husband and wife), but having the pool of assets tends to give people the confidence to buy a shorter benefit period—even if one spouse has a family history of needing care for a long time...

http://www.kiplinger.com/retirementr...eb2006_01.html

Anybody considered this type of LTC coverage?

[brewer12345]

I can't see that this negates the shortcomings of LTC insurance.