Nationwide Maps Consumers' Long-Term Care Insurance Confusion

A Nationwide research arm has looked closely at an old market research question: Why is the long-term care insurance ownership level reported by many U.S. consumers so high?

The answer: Many consumers who take the surveys have no idea what “long-term care insurance” is.

The Nationwide Retirement Institute provided data supporting that conclusion in a summary of the results of a recent survey of 1,439 U.S. adults ages 25 and older. Nationwide sponsored the project, and LIMRA and LOMA ran the survey.

Originally, 18% of the participants said they had long-term care insurance, but, after the survey administration system defined the term, only 3% of the participants said they were certain they had LTCI coverage. Most of the rest admitted that they had confused LTCI coverage with disability insurance or health insurance.

What It Means

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has reported that about 6.3 million Americans have private long-term care insurance.