Increasing cost of LTC insurance, is this common?

MY parents bought a long term care policy 18 years ago. It was written to guarantee the level of benefits and a yearly increase in benefits.

The premiums went up every year too

Now, they are on the receiving end of that policy. No more premiums have to be paid as long as benefits are still being paid out.

I did the math. If they had put away all that money each month instead of paying premiums. At 3% interest, they would still be much better off today!

But, the insurance company will not be making as huge a profit on this policy as they expected. People do not usually live this long to collect.

Put the money away for yourself. Maybe you will still have enough time to be ready without the insurance company.

I agree, it is sad. Having recently placed my mother in AL, I have all sorts of thoughts and would love to come up with a solution to this issue, as our population is aging.

Thanks for the article reference. This is a good summary of the problem:
"But as so often happens to responsible people who try to do the right thing, affordable long-term care policies that provide decent coverage are becoming nearly impossible to find. Even worse, existing policyholders are facing sharp premium increases, decreased benefits, and, in some cases, the outright collapse of their insurer."

It is not that insurers have grown more greedy. It is that the cost of long term care has risen so drastically. Sad. :-(

Yikes is right. Apparently it is happening to others, as well. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/long-term-care-insurance-increasingly-expensive-and-hard-to-find-120516.html