As Americans get older, they likely start to think about how to handle their affairs as they near the end of life. One of the things that some people choose to do is to purchase long-term care insurance. For some aging Americans, the desire to care for their affairs might end up with them dealing with a scam.
Some common long-term care insurance scams involve selling policies with expensive premiums to consumers who can’t afford them, lying about what a policy will cover or using sales pitches that frighten the consumer. Another common scam occurs when someone tries to sell multiple policies that are unnecessary or overlap in coverage.
Some people are becoming the victims of a scam known as churning. This occurs when someone is influenced to cancel a policy that is good for one that is only represented as better. The director of communications for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says that the expensive policy that replaces the original policy is often little better. In some cases, the new policy might be inferior or worthless. The victims of the scam might have to deal with insurance denials because of pre-existing conditions.
Four men who are believed to have scammed seniors out of money through an insurance scam told a judge that people are losing thousands of dollars to fraud annually. This shows just how important it is to be fully aware of what end-of-life plans will cover. Anyone who has questions about life care planning or elder law issues can get those questions answered by seeking advice from a Texas elder law professional.
Source: Fox Business, “Scam Watch: Long-Term Care Insurance” Carole Moore, Mar. 14, 2014