Partnership Smartnership

Many of my colleagues are on the LTC (Long-term Care) Partnership bandwagon, to the extent that they almost worship these policies or at least place undue emphasis on their value.

Here’s a typical article touting the alleged magic of LTC Partnership plans.  (Go Articles.com, submitted on June 7, 2011 by Shevon Miller)

And here’s the email I sent to its author:

“Only one glaring problem with this. No one in their right mind would willingly elect to receive Medicaid-paid long-term care. Would you? I bet your own LTCi (Long-term Care Insurance) policy has a longer benefit period and is designed to avoid Medicaid.

Partnership plans are best suited for low-income earner policies sold in the workplace. They are inappropriate for the typical middle-class or affluent individual LTCi purchaser.”

Most, if not all, LTCi sales are based on dignity, options and choices, which owning LTCi provides. Medicaid-paid care provides none of this. Medicaid-paid LTC is currently abysmal in quality and under constant threat of budget cuts. What will happen when Boomers start wanting to access Medicaid-paid care in droves? This will not look pretty. It is a scene my clients and I will avoid by using our properly designed LTCi policies, with longer benefit periods.