November is Long Term Care Awareness Month, the month-long campaign aimed at educating Americans about the importance of owning long-term-care insurance (LTCI). This is an excellent opportunity for you to reach out to your clients and prospects about LTCI and expand your LTCI practice.

Ahead of this campaign, Genworth has released results from an omnibus poll that measured consumer sentiment and understanding of LTCI.

The poll, which surveyed 1,200 adults between July and September, is a follow-up to the Cost of Care report, and uncovered several misperceptions about who pays for LTC costs, confusion between government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and a lack of awareness about what is and what isn’t covered.
Specific findings include:

• 62 percent of respondents incorrectly defined what LTCI covers.
• Two-out-of-three adults expect government programs to partially or fully cover the costs of their LTC services, but 45 percent of respondents either confused Medicare for Medicaid or admitted they didn’t know the difference between the two programs.• Only one-in-five adults have taken any action to financing their LTC expenses.
• Generation X is the most fearful about not having money for long-term care, but is the least likely to have prepared for these expenses.•
• Millennials are most likely to have taken action towards paying for future LTC expenses, which may be tied to another finding revealed in the study -- that they are the most likely not to expect the government to cover any part of their LTC services.

The call to action, then, is to underscore the fact that there is not a single solution to funding one’s long-term care, Genworth notes. Because of that, individuals must take on more responsibility to learn about the topic and plan accordingly.

Ayo MsekaEditor-in-Chief