Genworth Financial Inc (GNW), Metlife Inc (MET): Is Long-Term Care Insurance Just a Ripoff?

For years, long-term care insurance seemed like the ideal solution to one of the biggest concerns of an aging population. But after recent announcements that premiums on existing policies will rise dramatically in coming years, long-term care insurance is rapidly turning into a nightmare for millions of policyholders.

Last month, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System said it would have to boost the premiums it charges its policyholders for long-term care insurance by 85% by 2015. The move caused an outcry among the 110,000 CalPERS policyholders who have long-term care coverage with lifetime benefits, most of whom have had the insurance for 10 to 20 years.

Why is long-term care insurance getting so expensive?
It’s easy to understand why having long-term care insurance is important. With people living longer and the cost of health care skyrocketing, having the safety net of an insurance policy designed to cover the costs of nursing homes and home-health care has grown increasingly necessary.

But the same trends of rising health-care costs and an aging population that have made long-term care insurance so attractive to consumers has presented big challenges to the insurance industry. Having underestimated the true costs of the health care that long-term care policies offer, insurance companies have struggled to price their policies correctly. Moreover, low investment returns have hampered insurance companies in their efforts to reap enough income from early premium payments to cover costs when insured policyholders start claiming benefits.

In response, insurance companies have faced a dilemma: Should they try to get state insurance regulators to approve huge premium increases, or should they simply eat their losses and move on? A number of companies have chosen the latter approach, with Genworth Financial Inc (NYSE:GNW) having decided earlier this month to suspend sales of certain long-term care products in California pending approval of a replacement product that will offer reduced benefits at higher costs. Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) and Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) have taken the more dramatic steps of discontinuing long-term care sales in recent years, largely because of the financial challenges involved in offering the policies.

In addition to CalPERS, many private insurance companies are seeking higher premiums to keep selling long-term care policies. A subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation (USA) (NYSE:MFC) serving California got approval from regulators to raise long-term care premiums by 40% late last year, while Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) has a request for a 45% increase before the California Insurance Department.