During Tuesday night’s Democratic Presidential Debate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) raised the growing problem many Americans face with paying for long-term care services.

“What should we do about long-term care, the elephant that doesn’t even fit in this room,” the senator said. “We need to make it easier for people to get long-term care insurance. We need to make it easier for them to pay for their premiums.”

NAIFA also recognizes the looming long-term care crisis. There are more approximately 50 million Americans over the age of 65, a figure expected to increase to nearly 90 million by 2050, and more than half of them will need some type of long-term care services during their lifetimes. Long-term care costs in the United States are around $210 billion per year, a figure expected to increase dramatically.

Most people are unaware that Medicare does not cover many long-term care services, such as assisted-living, adult daycare, and nursing home care, yet the vast majority of Americans aged 65 and older do not have long-term care insurance.

NAIFA has advocated for a number of policy proposals to at least partially address the long-term care crisis. Most recently, NAIFA has advocated on behalf of a legislative proposal by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) that would allow people to use money from some retirement accounts to pay long-term care insurance premiums without incurring early withdrawal penalties or having the withdrawals, up to $2,000, taxed as income.

NAIFA Past-President Jill Judd, in August 2019, sent a letter to the Treasury Department’s Federal Interagency Task Force on Long-Term Care Insurance supporting federal and state policies “to increase consumer conversations and awareness of the social need for long-term care supports and services.”

NAIFA members provide for the insurance and financial services needs of Main Street Americans, helping them mitigate life’s inevitable risks, obtain financial security, and achieve prosperity. NAIFA has established the Limited & Extended Care Planning Center to raise awareness of long-term care and related issues and to provide information and resources for agents and advisors as well as consumers.