Long-Term Care Insurance Becoming Popular Benefit

Results of a recent survey show that American workers rank long-term care insurance as important as life and disability insurance as an employee benefit.

The survey, conducted by Prudential Financial Inc., summarized [1] a poll of 300 full- and part-time workers aged 25-65 who work for companies with 500 or more employees and who have household income of at least $40,000.

Participants were questioned about importance of various employee benefits, preferred method of acquiring long-term care insurance, and familiarity with the benefits and features of long-term care insurance.

Survey findings show that employees rank the importance of employer-provided benefits in the following point order. Of a possible 100 points:

38 points: Health insurance
27 points: 401(k) or pension plan
12 points: Life insurance
12 points: Long-term care insurance
11 points: Disability insurance

While 56% of respondents indicated they are not familiar with benefits and features of long-term care insurance, and only 14% indicated they felt very familiar with the benefits and features, less than 1/3 (30%) had actually attempted to learn more about long-term care insurance by talking with a financial professional. Most survey participants do not know what type of programs provide insurance coverage for nursing home care and home health care.

Prudential provides detailed information about long-term care coverage on its Web site [2].