The senate HELP Committee draft legislation for health care reform contains a provision that will automatically enroll Americans in a long-term care insurance program. The maximum premium is to be $65 per month. If you do not want it (and remember that is it coming out of your pay), you are free to drop the coverage. Why would this be in health care reform legislation that is intended to expand coverage to all Americans and (ho, ho, ho) control costs? The short answer is that Senator Kennedy wants it in the legislation. Is that sufficient for it to stay in whatever form the health care bill takes? Under normal circumstances perhaps not, but as is typical in Washington maneuvering, the premiums are set so that there is a projected excess of premium over claims of $50 billion over the next ten years. That is of course if Americans actually buy the coverage. However, it also means that if the long-term care option is dropped the Senate has to find another $50 billion to pay for the expansion of health care. In the final analysis, be patriotic and buy LTC insurance from the federal government to help finance other programs. It would be hard to make this stuff up.
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