00                       SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 28                                                                    
01 Urging dissemination of information about the costs of long-term care services and the                                  
02 availability of long-term care insurance for individuals.                                                               
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04       WHEREAS members of the baby boom generation are beginning to retire, which will                                 
05 put a strain on the financial resources of younger Americans if their taxes are increased to                            
06 cover the resulting rise in total Social Security and Medicare payments to retirees; and                                
07       WHEREAS Medicaid was designed as a program for the poor but, in many states,                                    
08 Medicaid is being used to fund long-term care expenses for middle-income elderly people;                                
09 and                                                                                                                     
10       WHEREAS, in the coming decade, people over 65 years of age will represent 20                                    
11 percent or more of the population, and the proportion of the population composed of                                     
12 individuals who are over 85 years of age and are most likely to be in need of long-term care                            
13 may double or triple; and                                                                                               
14       WHEREAS the costs of nursing home care can have a catastrophic effect on families,                              
15 wiping out a lifetime of savings before a spouse, parent, or grandparent becomes eligible for                           
16 Medicaid; and                                                                                                           
01       WHEREAS many people are unaware that most long-term care costs are not covered                                  
02 by Medicare and that Medicaid covers long-term care only after the person's assets have been                            
03 exhausted; and                                                                                                          
04       WHEREAS widespread use of private, long-term care insurance has the potential to                                
05 protect families from the catastrophic costs of long-term care services while, at the same time,                        
06 easing the burden on Medicaid as the baby boom generation ages; and                                                     
07       WHEREAS the federal government has endorsed the concept of private, long-term                                   
08 care insurance by establishing some federal tax rules for tax-qualified policies in the Health                          
09 Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996;                                                                   
10       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the                                      
11 President, the Congress, and the Governor to direct the appropriate governmental agencies to                            
12 inform the public                                                                                                       
13            (1)  about the high cost of long-term care services and the need for families to                             
14 plan for their long-term care needs;                                                                                    
15            (2)  that Medicare will not cover most long-term care costs and that Medicaid                                
16 will cover long-term care services only when the beneficiary has exhausted assets;                                      
17            (3)  that Americans should explore the availability of long-term care insurance                              
18 through their employers, service organizations, professional groups, other entities, and private                        
19 insurance companies; and be it                                                                                          
20       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the                                    
21 Congress to determine to what extent tax rules may still discriminate against the buyers of                             
22 long-term care insurance policies and to look for ways to remove such barriers and implement                            
23 new incentives for the purchase of long-term care insurance by individual Americans.                                    
24       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President                              
25 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States                              
26 and President of the U.S. Senate; to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank                                  
27 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of                                  
28 the Alaska delegation in Congress; the Honorable Tony Knowles, Governor of Alaska; and to                               
29 Bob Lohr, Director of the Division of Insurance, Department of Community and Economic                                   
30 Development.