The Buttigieg Long-Term Care Plan

Today Democratic Presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, released his “Dignity and Security in Retirement” plan. The plan reveals new proposals to enhance retirement savings, but it also includes the Buttigieg long-term care plan.

Although the Buttigieg long-term care plan is short on specifics, we support the overall concepts including:

1. Strengthening the private long-term care insurance market,
2. Creating the “Long-Term Care America” program that would provide a base benefit of $90 per day for those eligible, and
3. Allow more people to receive care at home by removing Medicaid’s institutional bias.

We support all proposals, like the Buttigieg long-term care plan, because we know that a “long-term care tsunami” is approaching and there is no single solution to the problem.

The Buttigieg long-term care plan has some similarities to the CLASS Act which we supported when it was first proposed by the Obama administration.

The only flaw we found in the Buttigieg long-term care plan is this: he failed to mention the Long-Term Care Partnership Programs which are now in effect in 45 states.

45 states now offer affordable, government-approved long-term care insurance policies that can protect 100% of your assets from Medicaid, even if your policy runs out of benefits. 

For example, a married couple both age 61, in good health, could share a Long-Term Care Partnership Policy with $500,000 of benefits.  If they used all $500,000 in the policy, they could apply for Medicaid and protect $500,000 of their savings from Medicaid.  

If they want to protect more savings they can buy more benefits for a higher premium.  If they have less savings they can buy less benefits for a lower premium. They can target how much coverage they want based upon how much of their savings they want to protect from Medicaid.  

In every case, a lifetime of savings can be protected through a well-designed Long-Term Care Partnership Policy, IF YOU PLAN AHEAD. You must enroll in a Long-Term Care Partnership policy while you are still healthy.

The Long-Term Care Partnership Programs are an equitable solution to the elder care crisis facing our nation.  The wealthy pay more to protect more assets. The “not-so-wealthy” pay less and can still protect all their assets.  

Is a “Long-Term Care Partnership” program right for you? Find your perfect policy below.