HM 0377

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to amend the Social Security Act.
4
5	WHEREAS, current federal and state medical assistance
6	expenditures for long-term-care services in Florida exceed $4.2
7	billion annually, with the state's annual share at approximately
8	$1.7 billion, and
9	WHEREAS, skyrocketing costs of providing care to persons
10	who need assistance to meet daily needs have hit the middle
11	class particularly hard, and
12	WHEREAS, the national average cost for nursing home care is
13	approximately $50,000 per year, and
14	WHEREAS, costs to the residents of Florida will rise
15	because of increasing demands for services as our population
16	ages, and
17	WHEREAS, the purpose of the long-term-care partnership
18	program is to provide incentives to individuals to purchase
19	long-term-care insurance and consequently to relieve the
20	financial burdens on the states when they assume payment for the
21	long-term-care needs of their citizens under the Medicaid
22	program by allowing individuals who exhaust qualified private
23	long-term-care policy benefits to protect an equivalent value of
24	assets and still satisfy Medicaid's financial eligibility
25	requirements, and
26	WHEREAS, the concept of long-term-care partnerships results
27	in private insurance paying first and government paying last,
28	and
29	WHEREAS, the four states that have had partnership plans
30	for almost a decade, specifically, California, Connecticut,
31	Indiana and New York, have experienced significant savings to
32	taxpayers and have seen fewer than 100 total partnership
33	purchasers qualify for Medicaid, and
34	WHEREAS, American citizens in 46 states, the District of
35	Columbia, and territories of the United States are being
36	discriminated against by not being able to enjoy the benefits
37	provided by long-term-care partnership plans due to a
38	restriction present in section 1917(b)(1)(C) of the Social
39	Security Act which has discouraged additional states from
40	enacting long-term-care partnership programs by effectively
41	removing the major incentive for individuals to participate,
42	NOW, THEREFORE,
43
44	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
45
46	That the United States Congress is requested to amend
47	section 1917(b)(1)(C) of the Social Security Act by deleting
48	"May 14, 1993," as the deadline for approval by states of long-
49	term-care partnership plans, thus affording states throughout
50	the nation the ability to give their citizens the same rights to
51	participate in those types of plans.
52	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
53	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
54	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
55	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
56	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.