DES MOINES -- Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller doesn't mind taking aim at what he considers to be a slow-moving target in consumer protection.

So a sector like long-term care insurance, currently taking a media pounding nationally and in Des Moines, must seem almost too easy for the long-time AG. Miller has recently been pursuing environmental suits.

His office has now launched a probe into the sale of long-term care policies, which offer extended nursing home care in old age, the Des Moines Register reported last week. The newspaper has been a strong critic of policy-sellers' treatment of elderly Iowan policyholders.

Millers' move followed a plea from the state's insurance regulator, the Iowa Insurance Division (IID) over consumer complaints about the sector. William Brauch, head of IID's Consumer Affairs Bureau, told the Register his group has insufficient powers to handle the complaints.

But the attorney general's office can employ the state's Consumer Fraud Act, which provides investigative, subpoena and resititution powers plus a range of penalties, he noted. In Iowa only the attorney general can sue under the Act, the Register noted.

Congress has also muscled in on the sector following a series of articles on long-term care "scandals" in the New York Times and elsewhere. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is now investigating two of the sector's market leaders, Conseco and Penn Treaty.

And a Des Moines Register editorial recently urged Iowans to attend a July 11 public meeting at the IID to air complaints about from policyholders. The paper's op-ed page also solicited complaints from readers this spring about long-term care insurance.

Brauch also argues that Iowans should be allowed bring individual lawsuits under the Consumer Fraud Act.