When last year’s legislative session ended with lawmakers failing to pass reform on long-term care insurance, David Schwartzer was not surprised.

For years, the General Assembly has struggled to adopt significant changes that would provide relief to policyholders, who have faced soaring price increases. Though the issue had strong momentum last winter, with five committees advancing key bills, legislators ultimately could not agree on which reforms should become law.

The setback only emboldened Schwartzer, who with his wife pays $9,200 a year for long-term care insurance, up more than 300% from when they purchased the plans 21 years ago. He has become an evangelist for reform, visiting towns throughout the state, rallying more policyholders to advocate for changes, including caps on rate hikes and greater transparency around insurance companies’ financial dealings.

“When I started looking into this in 2024, I was selfishly just looking to solve my own problem,” said Schwartzer, 71, a former insurance executive. “The more I looked at it, the more I realized this is just wrong. That’s what keeps me going.”

For the past six months, he and two other policyholders crisscrossed Connecticut, hosting meetings about long-term care insurance in libraries and senior centers. Some drew dozens of curious residents.

Along with informing people about industry problems, they are trying to build a grassroots coalition to spur new legislation this year.

“I’m not doing this just for myself. I’m doing this to represent people who can’t advocate for themselves,” said Jan Kritzman, 78, whose coverage with her husband has climbed to $7,000, up from $2,000 when they bought the plans in 2004. “They’re on the verge of dropping the policy – or perhaps they’ve already dropped it – and there’s no way they could testify at five public hearings like I did last year.”

Community efforts

Nearly 100,000 people in Connecticut have long-term care insurance – coverage that, depending on the policy, supports skilled in-home care, rehabilitation therapy, assisted living, nursing home stays and respite care.

A 2025 Connecticut Mirror investigation found the annual cost of maintaining these policies has skyrocketed for many residents due to miscalculations by insurers on how long people would live, the price of care and how many would need it. Consumers face sizable rate increases, often exceeding 50% and, for a few dozen people, as high as 174%, according to a CT Mirror analysis.

A review of rate hikes from January 2019 to October 2024 shows more than 17,000 people have gotten hit with increases of 50% or more. Some of the biggest companies in the market, including Genworth Financial, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Transamerica Life Insurance Company, requested hikes for five years in a row beginning in 2019.

When providers seek premium increases, thousands of consumers can be affected. In 2019, for example, Genworth Financial requested a 40% rate hike on more than 9,000 Connecticut policyholders. In 2021, Transamerica requested a 20% rate increase on 8,000 policies. The Insurance Department approved both requests with no changes.

In 2022, Genworth raised rates for more than 2,000 people by an average of 97%, with increases ranging from 79% to 173%, depending on the policy. The approved amounts were a slight reduction from the company’s original request.

To shed light on premium increases and how the industry’s troubles began, Schwartzer, Kritzman and policyholder Kenneth Kollmeyer organized meetings in Willimantic, Old Lyme, Farmington, Newington and Berlin. They shared their personal struggles with rate hikes and perspectives on the insurance sector, and asked attendees to contact their local lawmakers.

During a January meeting at the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library in Berlin, attended by about a dozen people, Schwartzer asked the audience how many had experienced rate increases totaling 50%. Several hands shot up. “100%?” Hands remained raised. By the time he reached 300% or more, two arms stayed in the air.

“We are paying for the mistakes … of an industry that is trying to force us to give up coverage we bought with good faith,” he said. “Reach out to your legislators – send them emails, call them. Let them know we have had enough.”

In an interview with The CT Mirror, Eric George, president of the Insurance Association of Connecticut, has said he understands consumers’ frustration.

“You will always have people upset, and understandably so, when the cost of any given good or commodity product goes up, especially when it goes up not insignificantly,” he said. “There’s frustration from the insurers’ perspective as well. Insurers want to manage costs and manage what premiums are.”

Jack Cook, who sat in on the Berlin community meeting with his wife Nancy, said the couple’s annual premium for two plans has grown to $5,300, up from $1,950 when the policies were purchased in 2010. In 2027, the cost is expected to be $6,500.

“We realized this was going to escalate, I guess we didn’t realize it was going to escalate this dramatically,” said Cook, 77. “It would be great to see some kind of a cap on increasing premiums. It would also be helpful to know why an insurance company is asking for the degree of increase they’re asking for.”

Legislative proposals

Schwartzer, Kritzman and Kollmeyer created a list of suggested reforms for the 2026 legislative session, which begins Wednesday. They sent the recommendations to several lawmakers, including leaders on the Aging and Human Services committees and others, like Rep. Matt Blumenthal, who previously have raised bills on the issue.

In early January, they met with Rep. Jane Garibay, a Windsor Democrat who is co-chair of the Aging Committee, Mitch Bolinsky, a ranking Republican from Newtown, and Mike Demicco, a Democrat from Farmington, pressing for another bill this session. The Aging Committee passed a measure last year that would have provided a tax deduction to policyholders and required public hearings for rate requests exceeding 10%, though it didn’t get a vote in the House or Senate.

Sen. Jan Hochadel, co-chair of the committee, included a strike-all amendment to another bill on the Senate floor, adding in the requirement for public hearings on rate hikes. It passed unanimously, but later died in the House after insurance sector lobbyists voiced strong opposition.

This year, policyholders are asking that annual rate increases for people age 65 and older – who have had their coverage for at least 15 years – not exceed the Consumer Price Index. And “in no case shall the annual increase be more than 10%,” they wrote in their proposal.

They recommend barring any further rate hikes for policyholders who have paid cumulative increases of 300% or more (or who have cut their benefits in a commensurate way) and are advocating for greater transparency by suggesting insurers be required to provide additional financial information (such as the number of policies sold).

Lawmakers said they are reviewing the recommendations.

“What [legislation] is going to look like – I’m not sure. But we’ve heard it loud and clear in our districts. I think every legislator has heard about this,” Garibay said of the rate hikes. “We are looking at every option. We know this is hurting our seniors.”

“My bottom line is simple: How can we arrest these increases every year and make sure that when people put in claims, we actually cover their care?” added Sen. Jorge Cabrera, a Hamden Democrat who is co-chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee. “How can we make sure these policies work the way they were intended to?”

Sen. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown, said Connecticut is “overdue for big ticket, pro-consumer” reforms to long-term care insurance. Lesser, co-chair of the Human Services Committee, raised a bill on the issue last year.

“We have to keep the heat on the legislature to do something,” he said. “And I think the [state] insurance department, in particular, needs to hear that this is something the public demands action on.”

For more coverage of the long-term care insurance industry, please click here.