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Lapses in Long-Term Care Insurance

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Abstract

About a quarter of people with long-term care insurance let their policies lapse before they die. This study shows that policyholders who enter nursing homes are more likely to let their insurance lapse due to cognitive impairment. For these individuals, long-term care insurance is worse than useless. They not only lose their premiums, but also spend down their wealth too rapidly, erroneously believing that their insurance policy will cover long-term care costs at older ages.

Suggested Citation

  • Leora Friedberg & Wenliang Hou & Wei Sun & Anthony Webb, 2017. "Lapses in Long-Term Care Insurance," SCEPA working paper series. 2017-08, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepawp:2017-13
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    1. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2010. "Are Risk Aversion and Impatience Related to Cognitive Ability?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1238-1260, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lambregts, Timo R. & Schut, Frederik T., 2020. "Displaced, disliked and misunderstood: A systematic review of the reasons for low uptake of long-term care insurance and life annuities," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    2. Martin Eling & Omid Ghavibazoo, 2019. "Research on long-term care insurance: status quo and directions for future research," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(2), pages 303-356, April.
    3. Daniel Gottlieb & Kent Smetters, 2021. "Lapse-Based Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(8), pages 2377-2416, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    long-term care insurance; insurance lapsing; insurance companies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance

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