State Partnership Programs for Long-Term Care
MR. WATSON: Alright guys, listen up. This is pretty cool. These are partnerships between the states and the insurance industry to contain costs and allow access to Medicaid reimbursement with-out older folks having to go "broke." Remember I said an old guy had to have assets of less than $2000 before Medicaid would pay for their nursing home?
WOMAN: Yeah! And they couldn't even give their money to their kids.
MR. WATSON: Right. The state would look back for five years to see if they were trying to get around the law, so to speak. Well, here is the cool part. If a guy buys an approved Long Term Care Partnership policy, once he has used the benefits, he qualifies for Medicaid and he can keep his assets of equal value to the total benefits of the policy. Again, If he collects maximum benefits under his policy, he qualifies for Medicaid and will be permitted to retain assets equal to the amount of insurance benefits he received.
WOMAN: Huh?
MR. WATSON: Yep. He doesn't have to spend all his money. Let's say he bought a LTC policy that paid $200,000 of total benefits. Once those benefits were paid out, Medicaid would start paying as soon as his assets dropped to $200,000, not $2000 as i mentioned earlier.
Ex. If a guy had $300,000 of assets, no LTC coverage, and he went into a nursing home. Medicaid would not pay until he spent all his money. Down to $2000. But, if he had an approved LTC policy that paid $200,000, once the policy benefits were exhausted, he would spend $100,000 of his own money until he was down to $200,000, the amount equal to the LTC policy benefits. Then Medicaid would start paying. Pretty cool, Huh?
MAN: Yeah!
MR. WATSON: This includes Nursing homes, home health care, adult day care services, respite care, and supportive home care.
MR. WATSON: These partnerships have four objectives: ****Know these****
- Stimulate the availability of private Long Term Care insurance
- Remove the fear of impoverishment
- Contain the growth of public expenditures
- Improving the understanding of the financing of LTC through state counseling services
