“COVID-19 Helped Long-Term Care Insurers in 2020: Fitch,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor

 

“COVID-19 ended up giving U.S. long-term care insurance (LTCI) earnings a big boost in 2020, according to analysts at Fitch Ratings. Jamie Tucker and David Gorak, the analysts, write in a new commentary that low interest rates continued to hurt LTCI issuers’ investment earnings, but that the pandemic helped, by increasing LTCI insureds’ mortality and reducing the number of new claims. Thanks to the pandemic, U.S. insurers reported a total of $241 million in net operating gains from LTCI in 2020, up from a net operating loss of $2.3 billion in 2019, the analysts write.”

 

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

How ironic! The government hobbles the LTCI industry by inflicting artificially low interest rates, but the pandemic, which hurt so many parts of the economy, delivers profitability to LTCI.