Problems With Long-Term Care

There is rarely significant news coming from the dry area of long-term-care insurance, but MetLife - the nation's largest life insurance company - announced this week that it was getting out of the long-term-care business. Apparently, MetLife just couldn't make the numbers work on this.

Here are some relevant stats that may have affected MetLife's thinking:

* Sales of long-term-care insurance for all insurers dropped by 32 percent between 2005 and 2009. It's an expensive policy, which makes it a tough sell in difficult economic times.

* The cost of assisted living has risen by 6.7 percent a year over the past five years, well ahead of the inflation rate.

* Here in New Jersey, even a semi-private room in a nursing home will cost you $100,000 per year.

* Nearly two thirds of all people over 65 will need some form of long-term care, whether that's in a nursing home, at an assisted living facility, or with home care.