The premium notice landing in mailboxes this year isn't a mistake.
Long-term care insurance rates are rising across the country, and for many policyholders in their 60s and 70s, the increase is the third or fourth they've seen in a decade.
Genworth, John Hancock, and a string of regional carriers have all pushed through rate hikes in recent years, and 2025 is shaping up to continue the pattern.
Insurers priced these policies in the 1990s and 2000s using assumptions that turned out wrong.
People lived longer than expected, meaning more years of potential claims.
Interest rates sat near zero for much of the 2010s, gutting the investment returns insurers counted on to fund payouts.
And far more policyholders than anticipated kept their coverage instead of letting it lapse, which meant the pool of paying customers shrank relative to the claims coming due.
Genworth's Cost of Care survey puts the national median for a private room in a nursing home above $110,000 a year.
A home health aide at 40 hours a week can top $75,000 annually.
Medicare pays for almost none of this — it covers short skilled nursing stays, not the long-term custodial care most people eventually need.
Medicaid kicks in only after you've spent down most of your assets.
For a couple both turning 60, a typical policy with a $165,000 initial benefit pool might run $3,000 to $4,500 a year combined, depending on health, carrier, and state.
Waiting until 70 can double or triple that, and a single health diagnosis can make you uninsurable entirely.
That timing squeeze is why advisors push the conversation into your late 50s, even though nobody wants to have it.
If you already hold a policy, you have options before accepting a hike.
Most carriers offer reduced benefit tiers, shorter benefit periods, or lower inflation riders in exchange for a smaller increase.
Call and ask specifically for the "landed" or "reduced benefit" menu — it's rarely advertised.
Dropping coverage altogether is usually the worst move, since you've already paid years of premiums for nothing.
If you're shopping now, compare hybrid policies that pair life insurance with a long-term care rider.
They cost more upfront but the death benefit doesn't vanish if you never need care.
Also check whether your state has a partnership program, which lets you keep more assets and still qualify for Medicaid later.
And run the numbers on self-funding: if you have $500,000 or more in investable assets, a dedicated policy may matter less than a disciplined savings bucket.
One more thing worth knowing: premium hikes must be approved state by state, and regulators have gotten tougher about granting them.
That doesn't stop the increases, but it does mean the letters arrive in waves rather than all at once. **Our take:** Long-term care insurance isn't a scam, but it's also not a set-and-forget purchase.
Treat the premium like a subscription you renegotiate every few years, and decide early whether you're insuring the risk or planning to absorb it yourself.
Final Thoughts
The worst outcome is paying for two decades and then dropping the policy right before you need it.