Chris Orestis, CEO, Life Care Funding, will testify before the Maine Senate Committee on Insurance and Financial Services. LD 1092 is the first bill in Maine to inform life insurance policy owners that they can convert a policy into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan as part of a Medicaid qualified spend-down.

Life Care Funding, a Maine-based company that works with the long-term care industry across the United States, is a proponent for seniors with life insurance policies and their families who need to pay for long term care. There are over 500,000 in-force life insurance policies with a combined death benefit value of $98 billion in the state of Maine. Too often seniors who have paid life insurance premiums for years abandon those policies as they begin preparing for long-term care. Either they can no longer afford the premium payments or their policy is considered an asset that will count against Medicaid eligibility.

Maine was one of the first states in the nation to pass a law requiring insurance companies to inform seniors of alternatives such as this to the lapse or surrender of a life insurance policy. In addition to Maine, Life Care Funding has championed legislation similar to LD 1092 that has been introduced in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky. Despite insurance industry opposition to this consumer protection measure, it is gaining support across the country as more states are preparing to introduce conversion bills to encourage seniors to use life insurance to help pay for the costs of long-term care.

Chris Orestis, CEO, Life Care Funding

Maine Senate Committee on Insurance and Financial Services

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

2 p.m. EST

State House Complex

Cross Building, Room 220

Augusta, ME