ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Long Term Care Insurance and the Nursing Home Industry
Why do people buy Long Term Care Insurance?
On its surface, long term care insurance seems like a safe bet: everyone knows that elder care can be a nasty blow to a senior’s finances, and it makes sense to try to ameliorate those costs by purchasing insurance, in case you or a loved one is part of the growing population of elders that spends some time in a nursing facility. However, our California long term care insurance attorneys believe that it’s always important to remember that when you buy insurance, you’re playing against the house, and if they realize that the margins on the game aren’t enough to turn a profit, they’ll find another way to make money.
How Long Term Care Insurance Works
People accustomed to products like life, health, and dental insurance may expect that long term care insurance works in a similar way: if you die, hurt yourself, or need a root canal, the insurance contract kicks in, and pays for an agreed-upon portion of the cost. And that is how long term care insurance works, to an extent. However, because insurance companies haven’t been able to turn a profit from these products as easily as they expected, they’ve had to squeeze down the expenses they cover, and have become notoriously combative about paying out claims.
Many policies pay only a very small portion of the cost of nursing care, kick in only after the family or senior has already paid for months of care, or may not pay for anything but a certain type of care. In the experience of our California long term care insurance attorneys, even if policyholders do manage to meet the criteria, there’s a good chance that they will still have to wrestle with the company to get a payout, which may only come after months of phone calls.
The Risks of Long Term Care Insurance
Besides being products that are fraught with complications, long term care insurance policies are notoriously expensive. Because insurance companies haven’t had the success with these contracts that they would have liked, some are trying to exit the business by ending sales of new policies and cranking up the premiums on existing ones. Policyholders who can’t pay the higher premiums end up having to cancel their policies, and end up with nothing after years of paying.
Contact Us
If you or a loved one has experienced long term care insurance fraud in California, contact the Evans Law Firm long term care insurance fraud attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Our attorneys have experience with complex financial contracts and large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
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Our long term care insurance fraud attorneys discuss the effect of nursing home costs on seniors and the elderly in California.
