Life insurance is an employee benefit long offered by employers, and changed little over the decades until recently when insurers began withdrawing from the group long-term care market.

As true group long-term care coverage becomes scarcer, especially among mid-market employers, a new generation of life insurance may provide some long-termcare benefits.

A handful of insurers offer either whole or universal life insurance with long-term care “riders” on a group basis, while others are offering this additional coverage on individual life insurance sold at worksites.

Sales of voluntary life insurance are increasing in general and the vast majority of companies offer life insurance to their employees.

While these products should not be regarded as a substitute for true long-term care insurance, which covers the cost of nursing home or home-based care for individuals who cannot take care of themselves, they can help cover some of those expenses, experts say. They also are considerably less expensive than long-term care insurance, often adding just several pennies to the life insurance premium.

MetLife Inc. was the largest group term life insurer in 2012. Typical life insurance offerings are a multiple of salary or a flat benefit.

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Life insurance with a long-term care rider is “not going to give you the same level of benefits as a long-term care policy, but it mitigates some of the costs associated with long-term care,” said Bruce Sletten, senior vice president and national practice leader for elective benefits at Aon Hewitt in Dallas.

Typically, the riders pay 4% of the death benefit on a monthly basis for nursing home care, or 2% of the death benefit for home-based care, for up to two years, experts say. Some insurers offer “extension riders” that will provide the benefit for an additional 24 months. The amount of the rider that is used then is subtracted from the death benefit.

However, for an additional premium, some insurers offer “restoration” provisions that restore a portion of the death benefit if it has been exhausted by covering long-term care expenses.

Depending on the size of the employee group, some insurers offer the riders on a guaranteed-issue basis. But the policies are not available in all states because some insurance regulators have not yet approved their use, experts said.

“I think the whole reason insurers developed the long-term care rider is to approach this exposure from a different angle,” said Matthew Byrnes, employee engagement consultant at Oswald Cos., a middle-market broker based in Cleveland.

Long-term care insurance, even when it was more widely available, was a tough sell to lower-paid workers because of its cost, which could run more than $100 per month depending on the individual's age, he said.

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By contrast, a whole or universal life policy with a long-term care rider “is a great talking point and a solid investment, especially for individuals who have never had a financial counseling session or maybe never will, such as blue-collar workers making $20,000 a year,” Mr. Byrnes said. The cost often is just “a few pennies” more than the premium charged for the whole or universal life policy, he said.

“I think a lot of this has come from employees asking for long-term care,” said Brian Celiberti, executive director of Crystal & Co., a middle-market insurance broker based in New York.

“Since today only existing group long-term care policies are being renewed, and only one insurer is selling long-term care on a group basis,” whole life or universal life insurance with a rider can help to satisfy that demand, he said.

Genworth Financial Inc. is believed to be the only insurer still offering long-term care cover on a group basis, but it does so only for employers with 500 or more employees. Genworth said it will offer the benefit to employers with 150 to 500 employees, but only if the cost of the product is picked up by the employer.

“The group long-term care market has all but dried up,” Mr. Sletten said.

Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has increased most employers' health care costs by requiring coverage of preventive care and screenings and eliminating annual and lifetime benefit caps, many have cut back or increased employee cost-sharing. Especially in the middle-market, many employers have increased voluntary benefits offerings paid for by employees, experts said.

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“To provide additional benefits to workers makes employers look good,” Mr. Byrnes said. Voluntary life is “one of the few benefits you can get at the workplace with guaranteed issue.” And because the “rates are extremely cheap” for group life insurance compared with purchasing life insurance individually, “they'll buy it on their spouse and their kids.”

When marketing the products at the worksite, Mr. Byrnes said, “I will start leading with the whole life pitch and then talk about the long-term care rider. Then, when you say the words "long-term care,' you usually perk up the ears of anyone over the age of 45 or 50.”