The receptivity of Eldermed members toward the purchase of long-term care insurance

Includes bibliographical references (pages 74-76)The Long-Term Care Insurance Attitude Survey was\ud mailed to 3600 ElderMed members in the Los Angeles Area\ud to assess their knowledge of long-term care financing,\ud interest in and perceived affordability of long-term\ud care insurance. One-half of the surveys were mailed\ud with an educational brochure regarding long-term care\ud to measure impact on attitudes and knowledge. Eleven\ud point six percent of the surveys were returned.\ud Significantly fewer (p<.0l) of the subjects who\ud received the brochure returned the survey. The\ud brochure had no significant impact on attitudes or\ud knowledge. Knowledge that Medicare alone does \ud not pay for long-term care was positively correlated\ud with both general interest level and the belief that\ud insurance is affordable. However, there was no\ud relationship between knowledge that Medicare combined\ud with supplemental insurance does not pay for long-term\ud care and the belief that insurance is affordable.\ud Belief that one would require long-term care was\ud correlated with interest level and the belief that\ud insurance is affordable. Respondents (49%) expressed\ud the most interest in insurance which covers the\ud continuum of long-term care services. Twenty-six\ud percent were most interested in coverage of only home-based\ud services, and 25% of only institutionally-based.\ud These data suggest that marketing efforts should focus\ud on the risk of requiring services and the lack of\ud coverage provided by Medicare, that individual and\ud group seminars may be more successful than mailed\ud information, and policies which cover the continuum of\ud long-term care services would be most successful