An insurer is REQUIRED to offer which of the following to long-term care applicants at the time of purchase?

In the context of long-term care insurance in South Carolina, insurers are mandated to offer inflation protection to applicants at the time of purchase. This requirement aims to address the potential for rising costs associated with long-term care services over time, ensuring that policyholders have coverage that adjusts to inflationary pressures.

Inflation protection can take various forms, such as annual increases based on a fixed percentage or increases tied to an inflation index, thereby maintaining the purchasing power of the benefits provided by the insurance policy. By offering this coverage, insurers help consumers avoid future out-of-pocket expenses that could render long-term care services unaffordable due to inflation.

The other options, while relevant to insurance products, do not carry the same mandatory requirement. For example, lifetime level premium might sound beneficial but is not a legal requirement for long-term care policies. Conditional renewability refers to the insurer's right to renew a policy under certain conditions, which does not specifically protect against the financial implications of inflation. Lastly, deflation protection is not a concept commonly associated with long-term care insurance and is not included in required offerings. Thus, inflation protection stands as the critical element that insurers must provide to ensure adequate long-term care coverage for consumers.