Florida’s Solution to its Growing Uninsured Population

Just like other U.S. states, Florida remains with a big number of uninsured Americans and their reason for not buying long term care insurance (LTCI) is not because they don’t need it. They need a policy but they cannot afford it. That explains how Florida long term care partnership plans came to be.

Standard long term care insurance (LTCI) policies are very expensive, especially those that come with indemnity plans. You’ll need to fork over a chunk of your income annually in order to receive your benefits later in life.

Reimbursement LTCI policies are more affordable but individuals with this kind of policy say that their benefits are limited to institutional care.

What people don’t seem to grasp is the fact that age dictates the price of one’s policy. This is not a secret. It has, in fact, been preached time and time again by professionals on the LTCI field.

Just yesterday someone said buy your policy today to save on your annual premium. The other day, another expert said every single day that goes by without a policy in your hand only increases your risk of paying out more for annual premium.

Unfortunately, many Floridians are only getting older but remain without a definite plan for their future health care. Somebody has to tell them that beginning 2030 nursing homes in Florida will start charging $904 daily. Yes, that is four times the current daily cost of a private nursing home room.

Aside from nursing homes, the rates of in-home care and community-based long term care facilities are also going to shoot up. So anyone who is considering self-insuring should think again.

Now with Florida’s Partnership LTCI Program, you don’t have to dread the future cost of care nor the annual premium that you have to maintain. This type of LTCI, however, has a set of requirements that differ from those of the standard policy.

For one, you have to be a resident of Florida at the time you purchased your Partnership LTCI policy. Secondly, your policy should provide a level of inflation protection depending on your age. Only Floridians who are over 75 years old are exempted from acquiring an inflation protection rider.

Special Features of a Florida Long Term Care Partnership Policy

Buying a Partnership qualified LTCI policy in Florida is like getting yourself an unlimited LTCI coverage for a price that you can afford.

Through the Partnership Program, you can purchase policy with a short benefit period, which is tantamount to huge premium savings. Should you require ongoing care in the future you can simply apply for Medicaid assistance without complying with its spend-down rule because Partnership qualified LTCI policies bear the dollar-for-dollar asset protection feature.

This special policy feature allows the insured to apply for Medicaid while protecting a portion of his assets that is equivalent to the amount of benefits which his policy has paid out to him.

Under normal circumstances, the state Medicaid program will require a resident who wishes to avail LTC coverage to spend down his assets up to a certain amount such as $2,000 or $1,200. In other words, you have to be literally impoverished before Medicaid comes to your aid.

With a Florida long term care partnership plan you will be able to receive quality care, protect your assets, and preserve your dignity.