Leading Long-Term Care Insurance Companies Pay $10.8 Million In Claims Daily

Jan. 31, 2011 - PRLog -- The nation's 10 leading long-term care insurance companies paid over $10.8 million in daily claim benefits in 2010 according to a new study conducted by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance http://www.aaltci.org.

This represents a 53 percent increase over the daily value of claims paid by the same entities in 2007 according to study findings.  "Every single day, long-term care insurers pay benefits for home care, assisted living and nursing home care," explains Jesse Slome, executive director of the national trade organization.  "Benefits paid by just these leading insurers totaled nearly $4 billion for the year, an amount that will keep growing as more aging policyholders qualify for benefits from their coverage."

The study examined claims-paying data for leading insurers that provide coverage to some 5.76 million individuals.  "During a typical 30-day timeframe, these insurers paid benefits to nearly 135,000 individuals," Slome notes.  According to the Association's 2010 LTC Insurance Sourcebook, some 31.0 percent of new individual claims are for home care services, 30.5 percent for assisted living and 38.5 percent for skilled nursing home care.

In 2007, the same entities participating in the study paid $7.0 million dollars in daily benefits according to the AALTCI report.  "As policyholders age the likelihood of needing costly long-term care increases as does the value of having this important protection," Slome adds.  Some eight million Americans currently own long-term care insurance with about 350,000 new policies sold yearly.

For more information on long-term care insurance visit the Association's online Consumer Information Center at www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance/ .

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Jesse Slome is executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance http://www.aaltci.org and the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance http://www.criticalillnessinsuranceinfo.org leading national trade organizations. The Association's Consumer Information Center was voted the #1 source for information by consumer interest group rating and can be accessed at http://www.aaltci.org/long-term-care-insurance .