LONG-TERM CARE
The Game ’ s Afoot from page 36
Have lessons been learned ?
The mortality and morbidity lessons from Covid-19 should be crystal clear . But in truth they only highlight a spreading malaise infecting companies , reinsurers , actuaries , and distribution that the task we undertook may simply have been beyond our means , ability or will to succeed . No one , including all of the above along with taxpayer supported bureaucracies would argue the financial risk is not real or imminent or that private insurance must be part of the solution .
There is a Covid-19 reinvigorated desire to improve and partially fund care at home that cannot be ignored . Current premiums are beyond public acceptance , new and similarly structured product is unlikely to be forthcoming . We must find new responses to the care deficit conundrum beginning with an acceptance that a negotiated partnership with State and Federal support services must be established and that the individual private insurance response be reinvigorated with goals that are practical and achievable . Public and private stakeholders must both step up . These structural principles are already in motion .
Political winds currently blowing across the land :
Washington Cares Act — a state run mandatory social insurance program funded by a new payroll tax ( currently under consideration by 20 + states ) created a stampede to purchase private alternative coverage before November 1 , 2021 , caused an overload of new applications and carrier exiting from the marketplace .
H . R . 4289 The WISH Act “ Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home ” — A proposed national attempt at a new social insurance program funded by employer and employee payroll taxes in essence providing means tested large risk stop loss protection .
American Jobs Plan remnant — this $ 400 Billion social infrastructure experiment ( at printing ) suggesting $ 3.5 to $ 5.5 Trillion in a massive new government regulated social health insurance program which would provide substantial expansion of Home Based Long Term Care Services and Supports .
“ Watson you may wish to bring your revolver !” Sherlock Holmes