Shopper's Guide To Long Term Care Insurance
Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Plans
Some states have long term care insurance partnership programs designed to
help people with the financial impact of spending down to meet Medicaid eligibility
standards. Under these partnership programs, when you buy a specially approved
insurance policy, you will receive protection against the normal Medicaid requirement
to spend down your assets to become eligible.
The long-term care partnership program is a creation of federal law allowing states
to alter their Medicaid program to allow assets to be disregarded based upon claims
paid by qualified long term care insurance policies. Most states allow a dollar-for dollar
asset disregard for claims paid on qualified partnership policies and will not
require you to exhaust the benefits offered under the partnership policy in order to
qualify for Medicaid. Under the partnership program, if you need additional coverage
beyond what is provided by your qualified partnership policy, you can access
Medicaid without depleting all your assets.
Benefits of the Partnership Program
• Partnership policies are tax-qualified plans under federal law, must
contain certain consumer protections and must provide inflation
protection benefits for purchasers so that benefits keep up with the cost
of inflation over time.
• The long-term care partnership program provides an alternative to
spending down or transferring assets by forming a partnership between
Medicaid and private long-term care insurers.
• Once private insurance benefits are used, special Medicaid eligibility
rules are applied if additional coverage is necessary.
Key Features of Long-Term Care Partnership Policies
• The policies must be tax-qualified plans.
• Policies must provide inflation protection:
Those under age 61 at date of purchase must have compound annual
inflation protection.
Those at least 61 years of age but under the age of 76 must have some level
of inflation protection.
Those over the age of 76 may have but are not required to have inflation
protection.
How Will I Know I Have Purchased a Partnership Policy?
• If the policy you purchased is a partnership plan, you will receive written
notice from the insurance company. Depending upon the state, it will be in one
of the following ways:
Your policy or certificate will be identified as a partnership policy in the
policy itself either on the front page or on the schedule page of the policy.
You will receive a letter from your insurance company advising you that you have purchased a partnership policy. If this is the only notification you receive, it is extremely important to keep this letter.
Please keep in mind that these programs have specific requirements in each state in which they are offered. Check with your state insurance department or counseling program to see if these policies are available in your state. Many states with long-term care partnership programs have information about them on their Web sites.
Long Term Care Insurance Shoppers Guide Table of Contents
|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25
|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|