Seventy-three million Americans are now over 50, a demographic not overlooked by the insurance companies that sell long-term care coverage. That’s a huge market in anybody’s book and the selling campaigns are intense.

And what a market. Today's older Americans are affluent, but facing pressures from an uncertain securities market and low interest rates; more alert to the potential health problems that can require long-term care; and more fearful of how long-term health care costs can wipe out hard-won assets. Benjamin Lipson, author of J. K. Lasser’s Choosing the Right Long-Term Care Insurance (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002), has news for the concerned but unsuspecting consumer: Not everyone needs to buy long-term care insurance. The consumer ombudsman of 20 years’ standing explains:

“I dedicated a whole chapter of the book to alternatives to long-term care insurance. That’s why it’s the book many insurance companies hope you never read.

“I wrote the book to arm consumers with information about the product and to give them the proper questions to ask, questions insurance companies hope you never ask.”

Lipson is critical of the insurance industry’s marketing tactics, which play up to seniors’ fears. “Everyone knows consumers will go bankrupt with expenses if their health declines, but what they want is security and independence.”

Long-term care insurance is not necessarily the answer for most Americans, Lipson argues. “You’d get better odds at a gambling casino than with insurance companies.”

The insurance industry has been less than happy with his book, but Lipson says he believes consumers need to know what to look for. He advises those considering buying long-term care insurance to review their options with an individual broker who does not have ties to any one company and can help you shop.

“Buying insurance is one of the most difficult decisions a consumer faces,” Lipson has written, “and buying long-term care insurance is perhaps the most difficult of all.”

Says syndicated health columnist Judy Foreman about Choosing the Right Long-Term Care Insurance: 

“Ben Lipson’s extremely readable new book…(is) the best I've seen in many years on long-term care insurance. He has the inside knowledge of a salesman and the no-nonsense style of a journalist. The real point Lipson stressed is ‘to live out your life independently and with dignity. Never buy a policy out of fear driven by emotional blackmail. Just do your homework and learn the true facts.’”

Benjamin Lipson has been a consumer advocate and newspaper columnist for more than two decades. Known for his work on patient rights, senior health-care issues and long-term care insurance, he has written more than 500 articles for the Boston Globe. He is observing his 50th year as an independent insurance broker.
 
Source: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 10/08/2002.

December 2002