Bill Would Allow Tax-Exempt Long-Term Care Insurance Premium Payments

A bipartisan group of senators last Tuesday introduced a bill that would allow employees to pay long-term care insurance premiums with pre-tax dollars, CQ HealthBeat reports. Under the Long-Term Care Affordability and Security Act -- sponsored by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) -- employers could offer long-term care insurance under so-called cafeteria plans, which allow employees to select from a number of tax-exempt benefits, as well as flexible spending accounts.

Employer Support For Long Term Care Insurance Grows

More than 90 percent of employers offering long term care insurance at the workplace are willing to help pay for the benefit, Unum (NYSE: UNM) reveals in its second annual Landscape of Long Term Care. This is a dramatic shift from the 100-percent employee-paid coverage that represented most of the market in earlier years.

"The increasing awareness and need for long term care services is propelling the sales momentum in the workplace," says John Noble, director of long term care products for Unum, the leading provider of this benefit. "Unum's sales premium is up 26 percent in the first half of the year. Even more dramatic is that we saw a 54 percent increase in new enrollees."

Costco, Unum's largest group long term care customer, was a pioneer in recognizing the value of employer-sponsored long term care insurance. Costco added the coverage eight years ago and currently enrolls 23,000 employees in the plan.