Nursing Home Insurance: Exploiting Fear for Profit? (An Examination of an Emerging Long-Term Care Insurance Market.) A Briefing Report by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging. U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, First Session.

This report describes the activities of the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care in its effort to examine abuses in the sale of nursing home insurance. Earlier Congressional studies of abuses in the sale of health insurance to the elderly are discussed as background material for the present investigation. The problems and costs involved in long-term care are explored; the availability of long-term care insurance is described; and limitations, restrictions, and abuses in the sale of long-term care insurance to the elderly are discussed. Highlights of the 1987 report of the General Accounting Office's (GAO) investigation of available policies are included which list long-term care policy restrictions identified by GAO, describe abuses in the sale of long-term care insurance to the elderly, and present GAO's recommendations for reform. Highlights are included from the Subcommittee's telephone survey of the 50 State Insurance Commissioners' offices which show the lack of legislation or regulation with respect to abuses in the sale of long-term care insurance. The Subcommittee's experience using an older adult investigator during actual sales presentations is documented. Finally, recommendations are made for the Congress, the states, consumers, and the private insurance industry. Data tables and relevant materials are appended. (NB)