Before Medicaid budget went on the line everybody was targeting it to be their sole benefactor should they require long term care in the future. Now theyre singing a different tune as they work hard to move away from the said federal health insurance program. Truth is, Medicaid is not a bad idea if one avails it through a long term care insurance partnership plan.

Private insurance and Medicaid are not strangers to each other as far as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 is concerned. As a matter of fact, they have been partners since the implementation of the partnership program, a collaborative effort between private insurance companies and various state government agencies, which aims to encourage people to plan their future healthcare needs with a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy.

No amount of explanation about long term care (LTC) costs has convinced people in the past that they will benefit from an LTCI policy because most of them are threatened by the annual premiums. Even though they have acknowledged the fact that they will require some form of care in the future, they still refused LTCI.

Unfortunately, as people continue to distance themselves from long term care insurance they are only risking themselves to face the prohibitive cost of care. Annual premiums are not supposed to be very expensive if everybody would take the initiative to purchase an LTCI policy while theyre young and healthy.

To draw people to the advantages of LTCI, private insurance companies and state government agencies created the partnership program. LTCI policies that comply with the rules of the partnership program promise policyholders a number of benefits apart from the usual LTC coverage.

Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Benefits

Partnership qualified LTCI policies offer asset disregard or dollar-for-dollar asset protection so policyholders who wish to apply for Medicaid assistance after having exhausted their benefits may do so without spending down their assets.

Medicaid is primarily intended for low-income families so under normal circumstances, any individual who wishes to avail LTC coverage from it has to spend down his assets first up to the required ceiling of the Medicaid program in his state of residence.

Meanwhile, if you own a partnership qualified LTCI policy you are exempted from that rule. Should you decide to acquire Medicaid assistance in the future, the asset disregard feature of your policy allows you to protect the total amount of your assets that is equivalent to your insurance benefits.

Aside from financial protection and maximum LTC coverage, partnership LTCI policies also allow policyholders to choose where to receive care in the future, and were not talking about local LTC settings only but state-wise.

If an individual with a partnership certified policy decides to move or migrate to another state participating in the partnership programs reciprocity agreement and she applies for Medicaid in her new location, she can still benefit from the asset disregard feature of her policy should she be found eligible for Medicaid.

Learn more about long term care insurance partnership plans in your state of residence by contacting your insurance agent.