Anyone who's had a loved one's care paid by long term care insurance?

My mother had long term care insurance and over 4+ years in a nursing home received more than she had paid in as premiums.

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Thank you Pam, I should look into that section before I had the posted.

Aging Care discussed about long-term care insurance:

https://www.agingcare.com/articles/Definition-of-long-term-care-insurance-143436.htm

No one knows what can happen in the future and thus the need for long-term care insurance. This will come in as handy especially now that 7 out of 10 of Americans will require long term care. This insurance product can help pay for the high cost of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, CCRCs and other long-term care services.
This insurance product can help protect your assets and as well as your family. You can avoid becoming a burden to your family if you have coverage. Think about this first before or better yet consult a care planner or long-term care specialist in order to come up with a decision that is beneficial for you and your family.

STP - I'd you bought the LTC 12 years ago the contract is likely based on what costs & actuarial tables were back in the year 2000.. I'd suggest you clearly read the policy to see what it will pay for and what requirements or restrictions are for caregivers and payout ceilings.

There are a couple of examples I know of personally on LTC: my moms NH will not take LTC for payment because the reporting required (as to caregiver time, qualifications, etc) to the insurance co is just too flat time consuming. Nh would rather deal with private pay or even Medicaid as it way simpler. The other is a friend moms LTC policy - written back in the 80's. The policy will pay for nursing care 5 days a week. Sounds fabulous doesn't it? Well the issue is that it had to be an RN for policy to pay and RN aren't going to work for the rate the LTC pays as they get triple at a hospital or hospice. She found a retired RN who did it for awhile but she quit after maybe 2 months as she wanted to truly retire. Policy will flat not pay for CNA or LVN, has to be RN. Policy based on what health care was 25 years ago and indexed at pay scale then.

I think this is going to be a huge issue in the near future. If nh costs 10K a month and that is just for room & board costs @ the NH, then in order for policies to be profitable for the companies writing them, they are going to have to be very very expensive to buy and /or very specifically restrictive in what they pay for. I think we are going to see insurance "creep" on existing LTC policies with premiums being raised for existing polices if the policies allow for this. I think genworth is doing this now - and their policies are very good & probably some of the best. The insurance co have to stay solvent & with health care costs spiraling up & the tsunami of baby boomers about to file on their ltc, they are going to have to increase the premiums paid or limit what is paid for.