There will then be a multi-million dollar educational marketing campaign that will be paid for with OUR tax dollars to educate or even (scare) our family members into thinking about this important employee benefit.

After the massive education program has taken place there will then be an open enrollment season from July 1st through December 31st 2002 for federal government employees, retirees, their spouses, adult children and stepchildren, parents, parents in law, and stepparents, retirees and deferred annuitants.

Metropolitan Life and John Hancock have formed Long-Term Care Partners, LLC, a jointly owned entity devoted exclusively to operating the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program. Insurance coverage will be available no later than October 2002.

There will be no government contribution to the cost of the comprehensive Long-Term Care insurance plans that are being offered through (OPM). The coverage will be available at group discount rates. This is "an important piece of the government’s total compensation package and an important component of the government’s benefit program. This is a benefit that will give (OPM) a competitive edge in competing for the work force that the government needs."

The program is the result of a legislative proposal submitted to Congress in January 1999, which the House and Senate passed in July 2000. The Long-Term Care Security Act (PL 106-265) was signed into law on September 19, 2000.

Once again, the message is clear. Our Federal Government believes in and is endorsing Long-Term Care insurance. The national average cost of Long-Term Care today is $25,000 a year for home health care, and that’s when there is a very strong family support system to help with care giving. The care in a facility today exceeds $55,000. By the year 2030 the national average cost of care will be $75,000 for home health care and over $200,000 a year for care in a facility. Where will the money come from?

The fiscal year 2003 budget proposal includes two important changes to Long-Term Care. The change would allow for an above the line deduction for Long-Term Care insurance premiums and a caregiver exemption that differs from the caregiver tax credit provisions included in Congresswoman Nancy Johnson’s (R-CT) Long-Term Care and Retirement Security Act legislation.

At this point you may be thinking; what does this have to do with me? Why should I care about benefits that Federal employees will be receiving? It’s time that all of us address our financial responsibilities and look the high probability of needing Long-Term health care squarely in the eye and deal with it!

Seven out of every ten Americans over the age of 65 will need Long-Term health care at some point in their lifetime and 43% of all Americans receiving Long-Term Care today are under the age of 65. Everyone who is getting older needs to plan for their future and that of their family members. Those who are not facing the very real possibility of Long-Term health care are courting disaster with their entire family’s economic livelihood.

Talk with your peers tomorrow and ask the following question. Who is or has been a caregiver for a family member or friend? How has it affected your family life physically, emotionally, and financially? How has the caregiver had to re-arrange their own life to accommodate the many affected members of their family? Of course there is no question that the caregiver did everything they possibly could do to help the situation, as we all would, but how much easier could it have been if the patient had Long-Term Care insurance? Long-Term Care insurance can transfer an estimated 90-95% of the financial risk of a Long-Term health care situation to a financially sound insurance company that will relieve us of the financial burden of care giving. Naturally when relieved of the financial burden and the physical drain by professionally trained caregivers or nurses it becomes so very much easier to focus on what matters most to us at that time the emotional challenges facing the family and spending quality time with our disabled loved one.

If your employer is not making Long-Term Care insurance available to his employees then you must accept personal responsibility.

I have actually been approached by a woman in public who shouted at me angrily, "I took care of my husband for three years and I would do it again". While such sacrifice is admirable, noble even saintly it is also unnecessary. I only ask that people thoroughly understand Long-Term Care insurance before dismissing it entirely. Education is the key, ask the questions and do the research.

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN REVIEW, NOVEMBER 2001

Dorothy McMahon is a Long Term Care Insurance Specialist, a Certified Senior Advisor and President of McMahon and Associates Ltd. Call her at (800) 727-0045. She is available for group presentations.