The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis reported that the state's senior population (age 65 and older) will double in less than 20 years. The overall population will have swelled by 47 percent; thus, the 65-plus age bracket will grow twice the previous years.
Concurrently, the funding for long term care in Oregon has declined though the demands for LTC increased dramatically. The state has no standardized financial infrastructure that will foster the growing demands of elders for long term care services.
Home and Community Based Services Setting
Home and community-based services are much advantageous compared to institutionalized care. The costs are less expensive than nursing home care or assisted living, helping Oregon taxpayers save more dollars to fund their long term care and other needs. However, the costs of home-based care have risen at levels unexpected by many. Based on Genworth's Financial's 2010 Cost of Care Survey, the home health aide services rise by 36% OR/WA- Portland-Salem while nursing home rates soared up to 8%. The increment in the rates of home-based care is noticeably higher than institutional care, leaving caregiving families all the financial constraints. About 80 percent of Medicaid funds are divvied out for nursing home care, so a lot of elders are pushed to spend down costs for home-based care.
Alongside the debilitating costs of home-based care services, the publicly-funded Medicaid is unreliable in helping residents ease out the problems of long term care; instead, it makes the problem become worse. Medicaid can Oregonians pay for LTC services provided that they have no more than $2000 assets to avail the state's financial assistance program. The Senate Bill 1919 (ch 486) was passed during the 74th Oregon Legislative Assembly in 2007. This bill was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which enables Oregon's Medicaid program to adopt the Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership Act. The Oregon Long-Term Care Partnership Program became effective on January 1, 2008.
Oregon Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Program
The Oregon Long Term Care Partnership is the recent reform established by the State of Oregon and private insurance companies. This program is a collaborate by two state agencies: the Oregon Department of Human Services is responsible for the Medicaid program in Oregon; while the Insurance Division under the Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services supervises the participating companies to market long term care insurance policies in the state.
The difference of partnership policies is significantly better than of regular policies offered by private insurers. This program provides the most sought-after benefit of asset protection that allows policyholders to protect assets should they apply for Medicaid financial assistance. The amount of assets that can be retained is also the same as the amount of benefits that a person get from Medicaid.
LTC insurance policies that adhere to partnership requirements are called Qualified Partnership Policies or QPP. All partnership policies must meet the following federal requirements:
Inflation Protection - Inflation protection depends on the age of policyholder at the time of purchase. This helps policyholders to save from the increasing costs of care annually.
Tax Qualified - As defined in section 7702B(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the premiums paid for partnership policies may be deducted from state and federal income tax returns. However, the benefits from partnership policies are exempted from taxation.