Health reform bill includes gov’t backed long term care insurance

Long-term care plays a role in the Senate HELP committee health plan released Tuesday by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. The Associated Pressreports that “Americans would be able to buy long-term care insurancefrom the government for $65 a month under a provision tucked intosweeping health care legislation that senators will begin consideringnext week.”

The AP notes: “Kennedy’s long-term care plan isdesigned to help disabled people pay for support services that wouldallow them to remain in their own homes and avoid moving into nursinghomes. People would enroll in the program during their working yearsand begin paying premiums. To collect benefits, a person would have hadto pay premiums for at least five years. The benefit would be modest —not less than $50 a day — but it could be used to cover a wide range ofservices. Prospects for the long-term care provision are uncertain, butKennedy’s advocacy may sway other lawmakers. For Kennedy, who is beingtreated for brain cancer, health care legislation would be the crowningachievement of a long and productive career” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/10).

Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Sunreports that Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., stressed “the importance oftalking honestly about the high cost of end-of-life care” during aTuesday meeting with President Obama at the White House. She was “amongDemocrats from the House Ways and Means Committee invited to discusshealth care as Congress begins to legislate President Barack Obama’stop priority this year. When it came her turn to speak, Berkley was notshy. ‘I said, Mr. President, the way we deliver health care in thiscounty is bass akwards,’ Berkley recounted. ‘We spend a large portionon end-of-life care. We don’t invest enough on early detection andprevention of disease'”

Source:  Kaiser Health News, http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2009/June/10/Long-Term-Care.aspx

Ed:  You can bet the LTCI industry will be all over this…