Washington State's LTC Mandate Temporarily Reshaped Life Sales: MIB

But the WA Cares opt-out surge effect was big enough to cause application activity for the entire Western U.S. region to rise 6%, year-over-year, in 2021, then fall 13%, year-over-over year, in 2022.

MIB believes the 2021 surge was clearly the result of Washington state residents’ response to the WA Cares payroll tax opt-out provision, according to Andrea Caruso, MIB’s chief operating officer.

The Future

Insurers suspended new sales of LTC planning products in Washington state in 2021 in response to concerns that the enormous surge in demand could bring in low-quality business and hurt operations.

One question is whether insurers and state officials could find a way to make a new payroll tax opt-out provision acceptable to private insurers, consumers and public LTCI program managers.

Other LTC Planning News…

ILTCI Conference: Managers of the long-term care planning community gathering have posted the exhibitor list for this year’s event, which is set to begin March 11 in Denver.

The list of insurance company exhibitors includes Brighthouse Financial, Federal Life Insurance Company, LifeSecure, Lincoln Financial, Mutual of Omaha, National Guardian Life, Nationwide, OneAmerica, Securian and Thrivent.

Genworth Financial, a company that was once one of the biggest LTCI issuers and still has a large block of in-force LTCI policies, says S&P Global Ratings has increased the issuer crediting ratings of the parent company to B+, from BB-, with a stable outlook.

The increase did not affect the ratings of the life insurance company subsidiaries that have written Genworth’s life insurance policies, annuity contracts and LTCI policies.

COVID-19: The American Academy of Neurology is showcasing a presentation by Dr. Clarissa Yasuda, a researcher based in São Paulo, Brazil, that hints that even mild cases of COVID-19 could increase long-term care risk.

Yasuda’s team studied the brains of people with and without COVID-19, and with and without signs of depression and anxiety, and found that depression and anxiety correlated with measurable brain shrinkage.

Yasuda will appear in Boston at the academy’s annual meeting, which is set to start April 27.

Seattle. (Photo: Michael J Magee/Shutterstock)