Senate Bill sb1206

    Florida Senate - 2005        (NP)                      SM 1206

    By Senator Peaden





    2-1100-05                                           See HM 377

  1                     Senate Memorial No. ____

  2         A memorial to the Congress of the United

  3         States, urging Congress to amend the Social

  4         Security Act.

  5  

  6         WHEREAS, current federal and state medical assistance

  7  expenditures for long-term-care services in Florida exceed

  8  $4.2 billion annually, with the state's annual share at

  9  approximately $1.7 billion, and

10         WHEREAS, skyrocketing costs of providing care to

11  persons who need assistance to meet daily needs have hit the

12  middle class particularly hard, and

13         WHEREAS, the national average cost for nursing home

14  care is approximately $50,000 per year, and

15         WHEREAS, costs to the residents of Florida will rise

16  because of increasing demands for services as our population

17  ages, and

18         WHEREAS, the purpose of the long-term-care partnership

19  program is to provide incentives to individuals to purchase

20  long-term-care insurance and consequently to relieve the

21  financial burdens on the states when they assume payment for

22  the long-term-care needs of their citizens under the Medicaid

23  program by allowing individuals who exhaust qualified private

24  long-term-care policy benefits to protect an equivalent value

25  of assets and still satisfy Medicaid's financial eligibility

26  requirements, and

27         WHEREAS, the concept of long-term-care partnerships

28  results in private insurance paying first and government

29  paying last, and

30         WHEREAS, the four states that have had partnership

31  plans for almost a decade, specifically, California,

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    Florida Senate - 2005        (NP)                      SM 1206
    2-1100-05                                           See HM 377




 1  Connecticut, Indiana and New York, have experienced

 2  significant savings to taxpayers and have seen fewer than 100

 3  total partnership purchasers qualify for Medicaid, and

 4         WHEREAS, American citizens in 46 states, the District

 5  of Columbia, and territories of the United States are being

 6  discriminated against by not being able to enjoy the benefits

 7  provided by long-term-care partnership plans due to a

 8  restriction present in section 1917(b)(1)(C) of the Social

 9  Security Act which has discouraged additional states from

10  enacting long-term-care partnership programs by effectively

11  removing the major incentive for individuals to participate,

12  NOW, THEREFORE,

13  

14  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

15  

16         That the United States Congress is requested to amend

17  section 1917(b)(1)(C) of the Social Security Act by deleting

18  "May 14, 1993," as the deadline for approval by states of

19  long-term-care partnership plans, thus affording states

20  throughout the nation the ability to give their citizens the

21  same rights to participate in those types of plans.

22         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

23  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the

24  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the

25  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of

26  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

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