LTC Bullet: State Moves Toward Private LTC Financing Alternatives
Tuesday,
February 7, 2006
Seattle--
LTC
Comment: A sense of the Senate
resolution in New Mexico urges consideration of LTC insurance and home equity
conversion to relieve Medicaid's fiscal woes.
More after the ***news.***
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LTC
BULLET: STATE MOVES TOWARD PRIVATE
LTC FINANCING ALTERNATIVES
LTC
Comment: Senate Memorial #9 is a
sense of the Senate resolution introduced in New Mexico by State Senator Carroll
H. Leavell and co-sponsored by State Senator Dede Feldman.
It lists the state's long-term care financing woes and recommends a study
and a conference to identify private financing alternatives that can relieve the
fiscal burden on Medicaid. Senate
Memorial #9 will be voted on any day now. We
bring you the text of the Memorial below. If
you have an interest in New Mexico or know someone there who does, please
encourage passage of this measure. New
Mexico's legislature's website is http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/.
You can find state legislators and their contact information there.
For
background, check out "LTC Bullet: State
Tackles the Real LTC Challenge,"
Tuesday,
January 18, 2006 at http://www.centerltc.com/bullets/archives2006/602.htm.
There we reported on an excellent report by an ad hoc committee in
New Mexico led by gerontologist and Alzheimer's Association advocate Dr. Ronald
Lucchino. Other states interested
in preserving Medicaid as a long-term care safety net, could do no better than
to start by reading "Alternatives
to Medicaid Financing for Long-Term Care," which remains available on the
Center for Long-Term Care Reform's website at http://www.centerltc.com/New_Mexico_LTC_Report.pdf.
--------------
Following
is the text of . . .
Senate
Memorial 9, 47th Legislature - State of New Mexico - Second Session, 2006
Introduced by Carroll H. Leavell
A
MEMORIAL REQUESTING THAT THE AGING AND LONG-TERM SERVICES DEPARTMENT LEAD A
STUDY ON THE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF FACILITY-BASED CARE ON THE MEDICAID BUDGET AND
IDENTIFY ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF FINANCING LONG-TERM CARE.
WHEREAS, the population of New Mexico over the age of sixty-five is
growing and will double by the year 2025 and, due to medical advances, people
are living longer, but not necessarily healthier, lives; and
WHEREAS, the population of people over the age of eighty-five is growing
twice as fast as that of people over sixty-five and these individuals are the
most frail of the elderly; and
WHEREAS, a large and growing number of aging people are suffering from
the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and are unable to care for themselves; and
WHEREAS, the Medicaid program in New Mexico covers the cost of nursing
home care and home- and community-based services for the elderly and disabled
and provides in excess of two hundred twenty-one million dollars ($221,000,000)
in combined state and federal funding for these services; and
WHEREAS, the cost of private nursing home care is unaffordable for most
people in need of nursing home care and, therefore, most families have come to
rely on Medicaid to fund this type of care for their elderly relatives; and
WHEREAS, people are finding that qualifying for Medicaid long-term
services is relatively easy, despite seemingly restrictive eligibility rules,
and that this relaxed access has resulted in an entitlement mentality regarding
financing of long-term care services, and use of private, out-of-pocket and
insurance financing for long-term services has languished while Medicaid costs
have skyrocketed; and
WHEREAS, long-term care insurance, home equity conversion and other
alternative mechanisms of private financing have been little used;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
that the aging and long-term services department be requested to conduct a
study, in cooperation with the human services department and the appropriate
statewide organizations representing aging and long-term services, on the
financial impact of facility-based and home- and community-based long-term care
on the Medicaid budget and identify alternative models of financing long-term
care; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study identify appropriate incentives to
encourage self-care and the use of insurance, explore potential ways to limit
asset identification and asset transfer and promote maximum Medicaid estate
recovery; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the aging and long-term services department
be requested to support the efforts of a statewide organization representing the
needs of people with Alzheimer's disease, and other organizations as
appropriate, to hold a conference exploring alternative models of financing
long-term care services; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the aging and long-term services department
be requested to develop recommendations on implementation of alternative
mechanisms of financing long-term care services and report the findings and
recommendations to the legislative health and human services committee in
October 2006; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretaries of aging and long-term services and human services.