Americans Back Long-Term Care Insurance

Americans appear willing to pay up to $600 a year for government insurance covering long-term care in a nursing home, but a vocal minority can be expected to oppose such a program, a survey showed Friday.

Congressional attention has been focused on long-term care since catastrophic illness insurance was repealed last year in response to protests from the elderly who objected to the program’s surtax of up to $800 a year and said they were more interested in coverage for chronic ailments.

The study conducted by the Daniel Yankelovich Group for the American Assn. of Retired Persons used traditional polling techniques to gauge public support for a long-term care program and market research methods to find out what kind of program people prefer.

Sixty-six percent of those surveyed said they are very concerned about the cost of a long-term illness or disability, and more than two in three strongly support a federal program similar to Social Security to pay such expenses.

The survey found that the most important element of any long-term care program is that it cover nursing-home care.

The survey found Americans would be willing to pay up to $50 a month for the “right” long-term care coverage “even though they were presented with the choice of paying nothing for long-term care.”