FL, CT, and HI look to long term care benefit plans to offset Medicaid costs

Joining Connecticut and Florida, Hawaii is the latest state to pass a study bill establishing a task force and time frame to examine the conversion of life insurance policies into Long Term Care Benefit Plans. With states facing enormous fiscal pressures and ballooning Medicaid budgets, they are all looking for private market solutions to help extend peoples’ ability to remain private pay in long term care for as long as possible. Millions of seniors will allow a life insurance policy to be abandoned because they do not understand their legal rights of ownership and the options available to them to use the policy for something other than a death benefit. To read the entire article published on Producers E Source.com, click here.

In 2011, the state of Connecticut introduced study bill SB-1153, as “an act establishing a task force to study life insurance policy and annuity conversions and the provision of certain notifications by life insurance companies”.

In 2012, the state of Florida passed HB 5001, to “establish a technical advisory workgroup by August 1, 2012, to examine methods to allow an insured under a life insurance policy or the contract holder of an annuity, to convert the policy or annuity to a long term care benefit“.

In 2012, the state of Hawaii passed study bill, SB-2455 to “establish a task force to assess and make recommendations regarding the use of viatical settlements and accelerated death benefits as means of funding long-term care”.