Bad Faith and Long-Term Care Insurance
Storm of Money: Long-term care insurance troubles BAD FAITH: Insurance claims a nightmare for elderly by Tony Bartelme Mattie Jewel Poston’s story begins with a gray file box. It's a modest plastic container with a sticker of an American flag on the front. Stored inside are folders with receipts and bills that Mattie’s husband, Herman, kept for years: bills for burial insurance, receipts for the long-term care insurance he took out in case they couldn’t take care of each other. “He carried that box everywhere we went,” Poston said one afternoon, sitting in a wheelchair in Heartland’s nursing home in West Ashley. “Insurance was a must; it was so important.” Like many aging Americans, Mattie and Herman were concerned about the high costs of medical care in the twilight of their lives. Children of the Great Depression, they told their loved ones over and over that they didn’t want to be burdens as they aged. And to make sure, they, along with more than 7 mill...