title: Family structure and long-term care insurance purchase.
abstract: While it has long been assumed that family structure and potential sources of informal care play a large role in the purchase decisions for long-term care insurance (LTCI), current empirical evidence is inconclusive. Our study examines the relationship between family structure and LTCI purchase and addresses several major limitations of the prior literature by using a long panel of data and considering modern family relationships, such as the presence of stepchildren. We find that family structure characteristics from one's own generation, particularly about one's spouse, are associated with purchase, but that few family structure attributes from the younger generation have an influence. Family factors that may indicate future caregiver supply are negatively associated with purchase: having a coresidential child, signaling close proximity, and having a currently working spouse, signaling a healthy and able spouse, that long-term care planning has not occurred yet or that there is less need for asset protection afforded by LTCI. Dynamic factors, such as increasing wealth or turning 65, are associated with higher likelihood of LTCI purchase.
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research and Development, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Network for Studies of Pensions, Aging and Retirement, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Courtney Harold
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Van Houtven
authors.forename: Norma B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Coe
authors.forename: R Tamara
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Konetzka
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005190:Family; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007353:Insurance, Long-Term Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010290:Parents; D014481:United States
keywords: children; family structure; heterogeneity; intergenerational; long-term care insurance purchase; spouse