In 2008, there are approximately 12 million Pennsylvania residents, and as expected, this number continues to increase as years pass by. It is alarming though, that not all of the residents are willing to buy an long term care insurance plan to be used for their health needs in the future. This is the reason why the state government decided to adapt a provision of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 and thus creating the Pennsylvania long term care partnership program. This partnership program was made possible by the joint effort of the state’s local government and some private insurance providers that sell LTC policies. They aim to give the public a cheaper option when it comes to LTC insurance shopping, and also to help encourage and convince the people to seriously consider buying one for their future LTC needs. Aside from this, the program also wants to lessen the expenses of the state’s medical assistance program known as Medicaid. It is found out that Medicaid spends almost $1 billion dollar a year for LTC costs alone. Of the 12 million Pennsylvania residents, an approximate of 200,000 elder residents are currently enrolled in their Medicaid, which means that the expenses may increase even more. Although Medicaid helps the elders with their needs, this does not fully cover all the LTC services that an elder individual’s health condition might require. There are certain conditions that are strictly being followed by Medicaid that might not give the individual the maximum care and benefits that he should have. By owning a Pennsylvania long term care partnership insurance plan, the individual is entitled to receive benefits that are almost the same with those offered when a person buys an LTC insurance policy from a private insurance company. In fact, there are two more additional and unique features that partnership plans give to their policyholders. The first of these two features is the Dollar-for-Dollar asset protection. For every dollar that an insured person’s partnership policy pays out in benefits, he is allowed to keep a dollar of his assets. These assets will also be disregarded by Medicaid should he decide to apply for eligibility and qualification in the future. But the individual must remember that owning a partnership plan does not guarantee him of being automatically qualified to receive Medicaid benefits. He must still pass and meet the standards and other requirements set by Medicaid before he can be granted qualification. The reciprocity standard is also a unique feature that can only be acquired by owning a partnership plan. With this, an insured individual who decides to move to another state may still use the partnership policy that he acquired from his original location. he does not have to buy another one unless he needs additional coverage period for his disease. Aside from these two additional features, a Pennsylvania long term care partnership policy also has minimum coverage period, minimum daily benefit amount, and certain levels of inflation protection that will be beneficial in regulating the cost or value of his LTC insurance plan in the future.
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