Almost nobody arrives at this page shopping. If you are searching for John Hancock long-term care insurance in 2026, you probably already hold a policy, you opened a letter announcing a premium increase, or you are a federal employee wondering what happened to FLTCIP.
This page covers all three, using John Hancock’s own consumer pages, the actuarial memorandum it filed with Maryland regulators in January 2025, and OPM’s current FLTCIP notice, all read on September 6, 2026.
Does John Hancock Still Sell Long-Term Care Insurance?
Not as a standalone individual policy. Checked in September 2026, John Hancock’s long-term care section of johnhancock.com is entirely a servicing hub: access and manage your individual or employer-sponsored account, start a claim, request legal representative access, find a form, read the glossary. There is no quote path and no product page for a traditional long-term care policy.
What the company does market is LifeCare, an indexed universal life policy with long-term care riders, which it announced enhancements to on February 19, 2026. The riders accelerate the death benefit for approved long-term care expenses, reducing the death benefit dollar for dollar as they pay. John Hancock states that these riders are not Partnership Qualified products, which matters in states with long-term care partnership programs that shield assets from Medicaid.
If you are shopping rather than servicing, that puts John Hancock in the hybrid category. Start with hybrid long-term care insurance and life insurance with a long-term care rider to see how that structure compares to a traditional policy, and see long-term care insurance cost for what standalone coverage runs from carriers still writing it.
John Hancock also administers a long tail of policies issued under other names, including Union Security Insurance Company, American Republic Insurance Company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina and Time Insurance Company. If your policy carries one of those names, John Hancock is who you call.
The In-Force Rate Increase Program
This is the part most policyholders are living with.
John Hancock’s explanation, in its own words on its rate action page, is that comprehensive studies of its long-term care experience found insureds initiating claims at older ages and claims lasting longer than previously expected, raising expected future claims. It states that no individual has been singled out, that increases are not driven by anyone’s age, health or claims history, and that they apply to an entire class of policies.
The legal mechanism is the guaranteed renewable provision in the contract. John Hancock cannot change your coverage or refuse to renew it for any reason other than nonpayment, but it can raise premiums class-wide, and it must file each increase with the state insurance department where the policy was issued, with actuarial justification.
How big are the increases? The Maryland filing gives a concrete, documented answer. On January 13, 2025, John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) filed for a flat 121.6% increase on its Custom Care (form LTC-02 MD, issued May 2002 to September 2004) and Essential Care (form BSC-02 MD, issued July 2002 to June 2004) series. Those forms cover 79,254 and 6,176 policies nationwide.
| Maryland policy form | Policies in MD | Avg. annual premium before | Avg. annual premium after requested increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Care LTC-02 MD | 4,516 | $5,402 | $11,972 |
| Essential Care BSC-02 MD | 110 | $4,599 | $10,192 |
Premium figures are on a 2021 in-force basis and reflect increases approved in prior filings, per the January 2025 memorandum. The company said it was willing to phase the increase in so the maximum annual increase does not exceed 15%, and that the anticipated lifetime loss ratio with the increase would be 90.7% against an original pricing loss ratio of 86.0%.
The same filing shows this is not the first round. Maryland accepted an increase on these forms on April 1, 2020, phased over three years at 15% a year, and a flat 15.0% increase on inflation-only policies on March 27, 2024.
Regulators do not rubber-stamp these. In an earlier Pennsylvania decision on John Hancock group long-term care certificates, the department approved the requested 28.4% average increase on landing-spot-eligible P-FACE(2004)PA certificates but capped the increase at 20% for the landing-spot-ineligible ones. What your neighbor in another state pays for the same policy form can differ substantially.
The Landing Spot and the Other Options
When John Hancock notifies you of an increase, it sends an Options Package with alternatives. Its Maryland filing names three reduced benefit options, and the definitions there are more precise than the marketing language.
Inflation landing spots. Available if you have compound or simple inflation coverage. You keep your current accumulated daily benefit and your current remaining lifetime maximum, but the future indexation rate drops to a level actuarially equivalent to the requested increase. Nothing you have already accumulated is taken away; the growth curve flattens. Not available on limited-pay policies or if you have already taken three prior inflation reductions.
Shared cost option. Your current daily or monthly benefit and your policy limit are both cut by a shared cost percentage, and John Hancock then pays only its share (one minus that percentage) of any covered service, up to the new reduced benefit, with you responsible for the rest. This is a real reduction in coverage, not just slower growth. Not available on limited-pay policies or after two prior shared cost elections.
Voluntary enhanced paid-up policy option. You stop paying premiums entirely and keep a paid-up policy whose limit equals the lesser of your current policy limit or 150% of premiums paid less benefits already received. This is the exit that preserves something rather than nothing.
If you do nothing, the increase takes effect automatically on the date in your letter. To change your benefits instead, you return the Coverage Change Request Form by the deadline stated in the notice. John Hancock also confirms plainly that it cannot refund premiums paid to date.
Premiums on a tax-qualified policy may be partly deductible as a medical expense within age-based limits, which changes the real cost of accepting an increase. See is long-term care insurance tax deductible.
How Benefits Are Triggered and How to Claim
John Hancock’s glossary gives the benefit trigger for a tax-qualified policy directly: a licensed health care practitioner must certify, annually, that the insured is unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another individual due to loss of functional capability, for a period expected to last 90 days, or that the insured requires substantial supervision to protect against threats to health or safety due to cognitive impairment.
The six activities are bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence and eating. Instrumental activities like housework, finances, meal preparation, shopping and transportation are explicitly not used to determine benefit eligibility, even though they are often the first things a family notices.
The claim process, per John Hancock’s claims page:
- Start as soon as you require assistance. Life insurance customers with a long-term care rider must call 888-887-2739 before registering for online access.
- Expect a long-term care assessment, a face-to-face interview conducted by a licensed health care practitioner, usually at the insured’s residence, covering physical and cognitive status.
- Keep collecting invoices while eligibility is under review. Once approved, submit everything received to date so it credits toward your elimination period as quickly as possible.
- The elimination period is defined in your contract and may be counted in dates of service or in calendar days depending on the policy.
- Most John Hancock coverage is reimbursement-based: you incur the expense, then submit an itemized invoice showing each date of service, type of service and charge, up to your policy maximums. John Hancock also verifies that each provider meets the policy’s qualified provider criteria.
Compare what you are actually being billed against nursing home cost, assisted living cost and home health care cost, or check a regional figure with the fair price tool. If the policy runs out, how to pay for a nursing home covers what comes next.
FLTCIP: The Federal Program John Hancock Underwrites
The Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program is insured by John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company. It is separate from your individual policy, and it is currently closed to new applicants.
OPM suspended FLTCIP applications for 24 months effective December 19, 2022 to give itself and John Hancock time to assess benefit offerings and set sustainable premium rates as required under 5 U.S.C. 9003(b)(2). It then extended the suspension for a further 24 months effective December 19, 2024, citing ongoing volatility in long-term care costs and a diminished insurance market. As of September 6, 2026, that notice is still the current posting on opm.gov, and the suspension remains in effect unless OPM issues a subsequent notice.
While it is in effect, people not already enrolled cannot apply, and current enrollees cannot apply to increase their coverage. Nothing changes for existing enrollees otherwise: enrollment status, benefit eligibility and claims reimbursement continue normally. FLTCIP has never been part of the annual federal Open Season, so there is no seasonal window to watch for. Note also that eligibility to apply, when the program reopens, generally runs through FEHB eligibility for employees, though annuitants do not need to be FEHB-eligible.
Bottom Line
A John Hancock long-term care policy is a closed-block asset in a market where the seller has stopped writing new business. Rate increases are documented, repeated, and filed publicly with state regulators, so you can usually find the exact filing for your policy form on your state insurance department’s site. When an increase arrives, the real decision is between paying it, flattening future inflation growth, cutting benefits under shared cost, or freezing the policy paid-up. For federal employees, FLTCIP is closed to new applications as of September 2026 with no announced reopening date. Other carriers still writing traditional coverage are compared in Genworth long-term care insurance and Mutual of Omaha long-term care insurance.