State workers who bought insurance to help pay for long-term nursing home or hospice care have sued to reverse price increases they say violated their agreement.

More than 3,000 people bought long-term care insurance policies for themselves and their dependents during the first five years the benefit was available and were told their premiums would stay the same, the lawsuit filed Thursday in Wake County Superior Court contends.

Charles Eilber, the retired founding director of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, and Linda Carl, associate director for distance education at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, are suing the state, the state health plan and MedAmerica on behalf of everybody who bought policies during that time.

The state Attorney General's Office, which will represent the state and the state health plan, and MedAmerica, the Rochester, N.Y., insurance company that provided the long-term care plan from 1998 until 2004, declined to comment.

Eilber and Carl claim the state deceived employees when it started offering the long-term-care benefit in 1998. MedAmerica's brochure stated that "premiums are designed to remain level over your lifetime," unless higher-than-expected claims justify an increase. The brochure also said premium increases must be approved by the state Insurance Department. Those who bought into the policy did not know that MedAmerica's contract with the state would be rebid after five years, the lawsuit said.

This is cache, read story here