Survey of over 1,000 adults reveals interest in long-term care benefit varies across income and age spectrum
Long-term care (LTC) insurance might be a tough sell as a stand-alone product, but the idea of LTC coverage bundled with life insurance still appeals to many consumers.
That was the takeaway from new research released by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, which is based on a survey of 1,250 US adults aged 30 through 60 conducted in November.
As reported in ThinkAdvisor, around one third (32%) of the consumers polled said they’re considering buying insurance that would cover chronic care or LTC. Just over a fifth (22%) said they believe they already had that type of coverage.
Separating the respondents by age group, MassMutual found that younger consumers were more likely to be interested in LTC coverage. Among those between 30 and 40 years old, 42% expressed interest in that benefit, compared to just 36% of 41- to 50-year-olds and 26% of 51- to 60-year-olds.
Survey participants with incomes from US$75,000 to US$100,000 were also more likely to be interested in getting LTC coverage than higher-earning respondents. Researchers attributed that partly to the fact that 29% of those earning more than US$100,000 in household income reportedly already had some form of chronic care or LTC insurance protection.
Of those in the US$75,000-US$100,000 bracket, roughly 36% said they were considering getting LTCI or chronic care coverage, as opposed to 33% of higher-income consumers
When asked how they plan to pay for chronic care, 24% of the respondents said they expect to use LTC insurance coverage. Around 16% anticipate using a life insurance policy’s chronic care benefits, and only 7% were thinking about using annuities.
Nearly four tenths (39%) said they expected to use their retirement savings, while another 34% are expecting to use Medicare benefits.
