
California's Long Term Care needs are complex and growing. Due to the advancement of medication, treatments and the healthy lifestyle of its aging population the need for Long Term Care is ever present and increasing in cost. Genworth Financial, a leading Fortune 500 global financial security company, conducted an extensive survey on the median cost of care for Californians in 2010. Their studies reveal that the average median rate for Assisted Living Facilities (private one bedroom) amounted to $42,000 per year. A private room in Nursing Homes costs an average median rate of $87,345, whereas a Semi-Private Room costs $73,000 a year.
| Region | Home Health Aide Hourly Rate (Medicare Certified) |
Assisted Living Facility Monthly Rate (Private Room) |
Nursing Home Daily Rate (Semi-private room) |
Nursing Home Daily Rate (Private Room) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bakersfield | $19 | $3,400 | $224 | $270 |
| Chico | $18 | $3,509 | $205 | $229 |
| East Bay | $24 | $3,350 | $250 | $282 |
| El Centro | $12 | $3,800 | $147 | $147 |
| Fresno | $19 | $3,500 | $190 | $214 |
| Hanford-Corcoran | $20 | $2,733 | $190 | $215 |
| Los Angeles County | $20 | $3,500 | $185 | $218 |
| Madera-Chowchilla | n/a | $3,450 | $190 | $196 |
| Merced | $23 | $3,149 | $182 | $195 |
| Modesto | $20 | $3,446 | $197 | $223 |
| Napa | $23 | $3,744 | $225 | $264 |
| Orange County | $21 | $3,845 | $201 | $263 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura | $22 | $4,000 | $196 | $238 |
| Redding | $20 | $2,750 | $223 | $242 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario | $20 | $3,000 | $184 | $208 |
| Sacramento - Arden-Arcade - Roseville | $21 | $3,500 | $211 | $293 |
| Salinas | $24 | $5,000 | $243 | $300 |
| San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos | $21 | $3,000 | $205 | $250 |
| San Francisco-Oakland | $25 | $3,250 | $240 | $311 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | $24 | $3,500 | $219 | $299 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles | $22 | $4,225 | $178 | $197 |
| Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta | $27 | $3,875 | $260 | $420 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville | $25 | $3,900 | $211 | $218 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma | $25 | $4,175 | $245 | $254 |
| Stockton | $19 | $3,158 | $203 | $270 |
| Vallejo-Fairfield | $23 | $3,000 | $200 | $245 |
| Visalia-Porterville | $20 | $3,713 | $195 | $215 |
| Yuba City | $23 | $2,983 | $180 | $192 |
| Rest of State | $25 | $3,200 | $202 | $220 |
Undeniably, Long Term Care can have a long, expensive and a devastating impact on California's families and their ability to provide and pay for necessary care for their loved one. Over 4 million adults in California are aged 65 and above, and more than 500,000 of these senior residents are below Federal Poverty Level. Approximately 27% of the senior population is on Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) where women account for 15.3% of the figure. Medicaid spending in the State of California amounted to $28.9billion, where the largest shares are allotted for the disabled (40%) and seniors (27%) for the fiscal year 2006. California is one of the top 4 most expensive states in the nation to receive care despite living a healthy life style in their youth.
California Partnership for Long Term Care is a partnership between the Department of Health Care Services of the State of California and private insurance companies. The program aims to relieve the financial burden on the State's medical assistance program since Long Term Care is financed through a combination of private insurance and Medi-Cal.
Policies offered by private insurance companies must meet requirements set by the Partnership program. These are called Partnership policies and include the special feature of Medi-Cal Asset Protection. An individual under a qualified Long Term Care Partnership policy continue to receive insurance benefits for their ongoing care needs through Medi-Cal without being required to spend down or exhaust their assets or resources, after using up the benefits of his qualified private insurance policy. Aside from this access to Medi-Cal, a Partnership policy has a "lifetime asset protection". This allows you to "purchase policies with coverage equal to the amount of assets you want to protect from approximately $47,000 up to your total assets." Additionally, the partnership policy also has minimum coverage limits to insure asset protection of the insured.
For example, let's say you have assets (outside of your house and car) of $200,000. You buy a 4 year Partnership qualified Long Term Care insurance policy with a maximum benefit of $150 per day. The total coverage of the policy is therefore $150 times 4 years (1460 days) or $219,000. If after 4 years of receiving benefits on the policy you still need care you can access Medical Benefits without having to spending down your $200,000 of savings. Because of the asset protection feature, you are assured that your assets or resources are protected for life. You and your loved ones will not worry of spending these assets that you hoped to protect.
My brother and sister purchased this policy for our mother so to provide private and adequate care from a professional as well as to protect her assets which she always intended to leave to us.
There are two kinds of Partnership policies. The Comprehensive type covers care at home and community, and care in facilities (nursing homes and residential care facilities). The other kind of Partnership policy is the Facility Only type and only covers care in a facility. Both policies offer one to five years of coverage. Lifetime coverage was made available since October 1998. All Partnership policies include the following features:
Data collected by the State of California Department of Health Care Services during the third quarter of 2008 revealed that Californians between ages 55 and 74 were the highest purchasers of Partnership policies. In California, most policyholders are married women. The most popular choice among purchasers is the comprehensive policy type - 33% chose a three year policy length while 10% chose Lifetime coverage. Policy benefits were mostly used for assisted living facilities and personal care.
Partnership policies may only be purchased from approved insurance companies. Licensed insurance companies in California must meet regulations and requirements set by the Partnership. Below is a list of carriers offering Partnership policies in the state of California:
We don't just offer one carrier. We shop all of the major carriers in California to offer you the best price. We only use your personal information to formulate your quotes and discounts and never sell or distribute your information for outside sales leads to other companies or agencies.