The White House and Republican leaders from Congress are currently engaged in a contentious negotiation over a balanced budget and how to rein in the massive debt our nation has incurred. The ability of Medicare and Medicaid to meet the demands for long-term care is being greatly challenged and reforms are inevitable. But one area that is receiving more emphasis is private-pay options to cover the costs of long-term care.

Earlier this year, the two largest assisted-living companies in the United States made separate announcements that they would begin offering families the option to convert existing life insurance policies to long-term care plans by working with Life Care Funding Group. Emeritus Senior Living and Brookdale Senior Living, both publicly traded on the NYSE, are using what is termed an “Assurance Benefit” so families can exchange a life insurance policy in order to be enrolled in a long-term care benefit plan that will pay a monthly amount directly to any of their facilities over a pre-determined benefit period. Life Care Funding Group has been working with the long-term care industry since 2007 and currently offers the Long Term Care Benefit to approximately 4,000 senior care properties across the country.

“Recently we heard from a family with a $95,000 life insurance policy entering its grace period. Their mother was in the process of making the move into long-term care and they could not afford the monthly expenses, said Chris Orestis, CEO of Life Care Funding Group. “They called their insurance company to ask what they could do with their policy and they were told their only option was to pay the premium or let it lapse. Then they contacted Life Care Funding and we converted the policy into a long-term care benefit plan that is now covering the costs of care and will keep her off of Medicaid for at least two years.”