Rising Expenses Makes Long-Term Care Insurance a Challenge

GE explains its difficulties in dealing with long-term care insurance.

Rising nursing home costs, rising numbers of people needing nursing home care, rising expenses and fewer providers partially explains what happened to GE, according to Bloomberg in “GE CEO Renews Pledge to Study Breakup After $6.2 Billion Stumble.”

GE used to be in the insurance business. However, the company was never particularly good at it. Insurance is never something for which GE was known. The company got out of the insurance industry, but it never found a buyer for its long-term care insurance portfolio.

In the process of selling the policies, the company had greatly underestimated the future costs and the number of policy-holders who would make claims. GE has estimated that these old liabilities will result in the need to pay $6.2 billion, for which it had not planned.

That is why it is difficult and expensive to get long-term care insurance. It is very difficult for insurers to estimate future claims.

An elder law attorney can advise you on options for long-term insurance care.

Reference: Bloomberg (Jan. 16, 2018) “GE CEO Renews Pledge to Study Breakup After $6.2 Billion Stumble.”