Plan To Be 100

Topic: The Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Program.

Background: This topic was previously addressed in these posts: LTC Insurance Partnership Shows Signs of Life (posted March 29, 2015); and LTCI Partnership Update (posted August 19, 2015).

What’s New?

Public Act 198 of 2015 which implemented the Long Term Care Insurance Partnership Program in Michigan took effect February 22, 2016. Along with the implementation date came a deadline for insurance companies interested in issuing policies that will qualify as partnership policies.  The four companies that applied and have been approved to issue partnership policies are:

Bankers Life and Casualty Company

John Hancock Life Insurance Company

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (approval pending)

These four companies are the only companies obtaining approval at this time. It is possible other companies will seek approval in the future.  These companies are presumably ready to sell these policies now or in the very near future.  Expect to start hearing about them.

Conversion policies

Be on the lookout for people who purchased LTCI insurance policies after January 1, 2008. The law allows individuals who purchased LTCI insurance policies after that date to “convert” their policies to partnership policies.  However, for this to occur, they would have to have purchased policies from one of the companies identified above who are authorized to issue partnership policies in Michigan, and those companies would have to agree to the conversion.  People who have such policies should consider contacting their agents and exploring their options with respect to conversion.

Friends in High Places

As mentioned in prior posts, implementation of the LTCI Partnership Program has been a priority of State Rep. Kevin Cotter, elder law attorney, now Speaker of the State House. As a result of Rep. Cotter’s interest in the subject and in educating his colleagues and the public about this topic, I was granted a very nice meeting yesterday with several people from DHHS, the Speaker’s office, and the State House Republican Policy Office.  Very generous of them to spend time answering questions.  Thanks all.