Incentives For Long-term Care

The state is providing incentives for Kentuckians to purchase long-term care insurance. The Kentucky Long-Term Care Partnership Insurance Program—a partnership among the Department for Medicaid Services, the Department of Insurance, and private insurance companies—entices individuals to purchase private policies in hopes of alleviating pressure on state Medicaid.

Here’s an example of how the program works. Let’s assume someone purchases a private long-term care policy that qualifies for participation in the program. Typically, without a partnership, if the policy’s benefits are exhausted and the person is still incurring long-term care costs, the policyholder would need to qualify for Medicaid assistance in the traditional manner. However, under the partnership program, there are modified eligibility rules that protect the policyholder’s assets if the insurance policy’s benefits are exhausted.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, when determining Medicaid eligibility for someone who owns a partnership policy, Medicaid will disregard the amount of assets equal to the amount of benefits received under the person’s qualified long-term care policy.

The insurance policy must meet certain criteria to qualify for the program, so discuss this with your insurance agent. Learn more at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site, www.longtermcare.gov/LTC.