COLORADO CONFRONTS LTC CRISIS
Nearly every state is struggling with significant fiscal
pressures or even a budget shortfall in the face of reduced tax revenue and
higher costs. Medicaid is often the
largest human services expense in a state budget and long-term care is usually
the largest component of Medicaid spending. Thus, long-term care spending cuts
are in play across the country as state governments struggle to adjust to our
new economic reality. While Medicaid
spending cuts may keep the proverbial ship afloat temporarily, how should
states prepare for the future? The
latest effort in Colorado may point the way.
The Colorado legislature is now considering a resolution encouraging
private financing of long-term care to help ensure the viability of Colorado’s
safety net for the truly needy.
A resolution titled “House Joint Resolution 02-1003: Concerning the Importance of Long-Term Care
Insurance, and, in Connection Therewith, Encouraging Citizens to Purchase
Private Long-Term Care Insurance Policies” has already passed the Colorado
House and is now before the Colorado Senate for consideration. (The House version, which passed on January
16, 2002, is online in .pdf format at:
An excerpt from the resolution follows:
“WHEREAS, The government provides a
safety net for the impoverished, but it cannot afford to pay for long-term care
for everyone who will need it; and
WHEREAS, Failing to protect
household assets by planning for long-term care with private insurance can have
dire consequences that result in the loss of those assets; and
WHEREAS, It is imperative that
people begin now to plan for their long-term care needs; and
WHEREAS, Private long-term care
insurance can help pay for most of the cost of long-term care, as well as
provide protection against inflation; and
WHEREAS, Increasing the number of
private options for long-term care is not only important, but essential for the
well-being of Coloradans; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the House of
Representatives of the Sixty-third General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein:
That the General Assembly strongly
encourages all Coloradans to investigate the costs of long-term care and the
benefits of having private long-term care insurance; and
That the General Assembly urges
Coloradans to actively pursue the purchase of appropriate long-term care
insurance since the government can provide assistance for long-term care to
only the most destitute, and not to all those who will need it; and
That the General Assembly urges
the private sector to increase the number of options for privately funded
long-term care in Colorado.”
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