Another FLTCIP Hearing but No Solutions

Last week, members of Congress held a hearing to further discuss the massive premium hikes for federal long-term care insurance enrollees, but little more was uncovered.

John Hancock Insurance, the contractor for the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP), reaffirmed that the company had made a mistake in their estimations.

“Looking back, we clearly got it wrong. There’s no question about that,” said Michael Doughty, president and general manager of John Hancock Insurance. “We weren’t alone in doing that. We vetted those with outside actuarial firms, OPM used their experts to look at them, and I know used outside actuarial firms.”

The Office of Personnel Management also offered testimony. When asked, John O’Brien, senior health policy adviser at OPM, said he did not have any recommendations on how to move forward with this issue, but that OPM is open to working with the panel and others who testified.

This prompted an irritated response from Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) who underscored that this is not a new issue and many federal workers have given feedback regarding the premium rate increases.

“And yet, you come here empty-handed,” Connolly said. “I am the ranking member of the subcommittee. I’m going to use every influence I’ve got to make sure you are summoned back to this subcommittee and at that point, we will expect specific proposals. You owe that to the federal employees and retirees who count on this product.”

Witnesses and members of the panel also acknowledged that overall, costs for long-term care insurance have significantly increased across the board.