Cancer Death Rate Declines Will Create Greater Long-Term Care Need

A steady decline in overall cancer death rates among America's aging adult population will create added stress on the long-term care needs of seniors.

Medical advances and better lifestyles among the aging population appears to have saved 898,000 deaths from cancer between 1990 and 2007.  According to the latest statistics presented today by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, this is both good and bad news for the primary targets of cancer - senior citizens.

"When you live a long life, the risk of needing costly long-term care services is great," explains Jesse Slome, AALTCI executive director.  "When you live a longer life, the risk and cost will be even greater.  More Americans will need home care and nursing home care services.  Medicare which pays for cancer treatments for millions of seniors does not cover the long term health care costs associated with aging, or pays very little of them," Slome notes.  "Millions of senior or aging baby boomers have no plan in place and will be quite surprised by the outcome."

Progress in the survival rate of those once impacted by cancer has not benefited all segments of the population equally.  According to researchers, cancer death rates for individuals with the least education are more than twice those of the most educated.

Cancer death rates according to the American Cancer Society are still declining in the U.S., but some are declining faster than others -- and cancer remains the leading cause of death for Americans younger than 85.

In it's yearly report they estimated that 1,596,670 new cancer diagnoses and more than 570,000 cancer deaths are expected to occur this year.

Slome shared that death rates fell by about 22% for men and 14% for women between 1990 and 2007. Since the early 2000’s, the decline has been 1.9% a year in men and 1.5% each year in women.  Better early detection and better treatment as well as reduced tobacco use over the past half-century that helped turned the tide in cancer-related deaths.

The long term care insurance Association recently reported that some 500,000 Americans would apply for insurance coverage this year.  "That is certainly an indication that responsible people understand they need to have a plan in place," Slome adds.  The Association will launch a monthlong effort to provide free long-term care insurance cost comparisons for consumers.  Click here to request a free long term care insurance cost comparison or visit their website at http://www.aaltci.org/free-quote/.

Younger people are starting long term care insurance planning

A year ago, the majority of individuals who contacted the Association looking for long term care insurance information were age 70 or older.  In fact, we got our share of calls from 80 year olds frustrated that they couldn't find a long-term care insurance company willing to speak with them.  Only a few will and most are understandably highly selective in terms of the risks they will be willing to accept.

Well, slowly I have been witnessing a change.  We started seeing inquiries from more folks in their young 60s and more in their mid to late 50s.  But all of a sudden (meaning the last two or three months) we are fielding calls and questions from consumers in their 40s and even a few in their late 30s.

This is a pretty seismic shift in the world of long term care insurance marketing and certainly will impact how a product is sold.  After all, convincing someone in their late 50s and mid 60s that they need to plan for when they reach the age of 80 is reasonable to accomplish.  For someone who is 40, that is literally an entire lifetime away.

First, what do I think is responsible for what's happening?  To be honest, I hope it is a result of the year-after-year studies published by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance that explained the percentage of applicants declined for health reasons and the importance of applying at younger ages when you can still qualify.  It could be that agents have "picked off the low hanging fruit" in terms of marketing to 60 and 70 years olds.  Or, it coule be that younger people are being solicited and a percentage are using Google to find expertise and validate the claims.

What we'll want to see if whether more younger people actually apply and buy.  The year-to-year change in buying ages from 2009 to 2010 was statistically insignificant.

One of the more interesting observations that have caught my attention.

Every Long Term Care Insurance Fact And Figure

​Not a single day goes by without my phone ringing or an email being received from an agent or broker with a question about a ststistic or fact.

And over the years, I have learned to do lots of digging to find those facts and figures that answer threse meaningful questions.  Typically I put the print out from the various reports into a folder knowing that sooner or later I'd need to refer to the report again.

But no longer because we have just released the first Long-Term Care Insurance Almanac that contains all the facts and data one would ever want in one handy, dandy guide.  It's the perfect piece to use yourself or to give to those pesky prospects who ask questions (it will also show them you are a knowledgeable professional ... because no one else will have shared this with them).

We've posted a PDF of the ALMANAC online for you to view.  Go to http://www.aaltci.org/tools and then scroll down towards the bottom.  You'll see the image next to the image of the LTC Insurance Sourcebook.