Hybrid annuity-LTC plans aid the healthy and the ill. (Conference Call).

A treasury department official put in a plug at a recent Washington seminar for new types of life insurance annuity plans that are combined with long-term-care insurance.

Mark Warshawsky, deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, told a gathering sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute that the combined plans are a "creative" way of mitigating the risks and disadvantages of both types of insurance.

"The traditional defined-benefit plan gave you a life annuity, and that was it," said Mr. Warshawsky, who spoke at a tax policy seminar, "Do 401(k) P