Subsidized, Mandatory Long-Term Care Insurance
LawrenceA Frolik (Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law)spoke at the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policysymposium entitled “Long-Term Care for America’s Elderly: Who Is Responsible,and How Will It Be Achieved?”. Hisremarks have been edited for publication in AnEssay on the Need for Subsidized, Mandatory Long-Term Care Insurance, 21Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol’y 517 (2007).
Here are the concluding paragraphs:
The advantages of mandatorylong-term care insurance are obvious. It would create a pool of funds fromwhich to pay for much of the future long-term care costs. It would createnational savings to meet a national expense. How much it would pay for eachindividual would depend upon the amount of the benefits, and that in turn woulddepend upon how high were the premiums. The rich, the middle class, and thepoor would all benefit. The rich, who might be able to pay for their long-termcare, would receive benefits that would increase the size of their estates orpermit them to purchase better care. The middle class would be better able topreserve assets for their heirs and provide for a more comfortable life for acommunity spouse. In contrast to Medicaid, which only pays for nursing homes,mandated long-term care insurance benefits would also pay for assisted livingand possibly home health care, thus providing the poor with funds to purchaselong-term care in a variety of settings, and often at a lower price. And if thepremiums of those with limited income were subsidized, they would have receivedeven greater value from the insurance.Those of any economic class, who died after only modest or even no long-termcare expenses, would have received the value of the insurance coverage in thesame way that fire insurance has value even if the house never has a fire. Inshort, all economic segments of society would benefit from mandatory long-termcare insurance.
The costs of long-term care must beborne by someone. Why not by all of us through an insurance arrangement? Bycollective action, we can meet the need of the individual to pay for long-termcare and thus reduce by a bit our being “exposed to every risk and hardship.”