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New Incentive Helps Texans Pay For Long-Term
Care
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Texas is campaigning to get residents to buy
long-term-care insurance, and it's sweetening the pot by allowing
consumers to qualify for state assistance while keeping more of
their life savings.
The new Texas Long-Term Care Partnership addresses a difficult
decision Texans face when they or a spouse need to move into a
nursing home: State rules severely limit the assets a household
can own to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state health program
for the poor that pays for two-thirds of Texans in nursing homes
today.
That restriction means individuals generally must spend down their
assets to become eligible.
But under the state's partnership program, participating insurers
allow policyholders to shield a specific amount of their assets
from the state's formula for determining eligibility. Such
policies are called "asset disregard benefits."
Texas is one of 34 states with a long-term-care partnership, said
Ana Smith-Daley, deputy commissioner of life and health insurance
at the Texas Department of Insurance. Asset protection applies in
the other states as well, so policyholders who relocate will
receive the same protection if they apply for Medicaid.
Continue . . .
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