SB7,HD2,CD1 - LTC Insurance for Home Care.doc
THE SENATE
7
HAWAII SILVER LEGISLATURE, 2005
H.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII
C.D. 1
S.B. NO.
A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE
PREMIUM TO PROVIDE HOME CARE SERVICES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE SILVER LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The Silver Legislature believes that the approach
1
to long-term care to help Hawaii's elderly and disabled should be
2
prompted by compassion and caring, although the problem is
3
inextricably one of economics. Medicaid, Medicare, long-term care
4
insurance, and personal assets are insufficient or inaccessible to
5
most individuals. Institutional care is viewed by many as too
6
costly, too consumptive of scarce public dollars, confining, and
7
uncaring.
8
National polls have shown that families are willing to pay
9
their fair share, even if it means a premium because long-term care
10
is a family problem, does not go away, and affects the young and the
11
old; families are willing to pay a little now rather than a whole
12
lot more later.
13
The Silver Legislature believes that a consumer-funded and
14
directed social long-term care insurance plan:
15
(1)
Assures a floor of income protection upon retirement to meet
16
a societal need to see that elders do not live and die in
17
poverty.
18
(2)
Benefits the majority of the adult population.
19
(3)
Bridges the gap between the very poor and those who are able
20
to cover the cost of their own long-term care.
21
(4)
Provides long-term care benefits for younger adults who may
22
require but not qualify for private long-term care insurance.
23
pg_0002
SB7,HD2,CD1 - LTC Insurance for Home Care.doc
(5)
Helps families in the “sandwich generation” who bear the
1
long-term care cost of their parents and grandparents.
2
(6)
Provides some assured, even if modest, level of care for the
3
greatest number of citizens.
4
The purpose of this Act is to establish a universal and
5
affordable system for long-term care that provides up front
6
financial assistance to support frail persons who wish to remain in
7
their own homes.
8
SECTION 2. There is established a Long-term Care Insurance
9
Premium to provide home care services.
10
The State of Hawaii shall impose a monthly long-term care
11
premium of $10, to be collected by the Department of Taxation from
12
each person who is aged twenty-five to ninety-eight and is a regular
13
employee or self-employed, and deposited into the Hawaii Long-term
14
Care Benefits Fund. The premium shall be increased by $.50 - $1 a
15
month in the years 2006 through 2010. Thereafter, the amount may be
16
increased upon request of the Board of Trustees, who is to
17
administer the program, to the Legislature.
18
Individuals who are fully vested (ten years) shall receive full
19
benefit payments for home care services. Those partially vested
20
shall receive proportional benefits. Payments shall begin in July
21
1, 2009, thirty days after approval of the written certification
22
from a physician or advanced practice registered nurse assigned by
23
the Board of Trustees that the person needs one or more long-term
24
care services.
25
To be eligible, a vested individual must need help with two or
26
more activities of daily living or have Alzheimer's disease or
27
dementia. The benefit payment is $70 a day, up to a cumulative
28
three hundred sixty-five days, for home care services. Payments are
29
primary to Medicaid and private insurance payments but are not made
30
when a person is receiving Medicare benefits for long-term care.
31
SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the General Revenues
32
$3 million for the purposes of this Act.
33
SECTION 4. This Act shall take affect on July 1, 2006.
34