Grassley works to help seniors and people with disabilities get care they need at home and seeks tax relief to help individuals manage caregiving costs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 16, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — Federal legislation introduced today by Senator Chuck Grassley would make it easier for states to provide Medicaid home and community-based services to seniors and Americans with disabilities, and empower individuals to manage the financial burdens that come with caregiving needs.

Grassley said the bill is part of his ongoing effort to enable people to stay at home rather than live in an institution. “Being able to live at home greatly improves a person’s quality of life because people can be with loved ones and have the dignity that goes with greater independence,” Grassley said. He said home and community-based services make more sense for state and federal budgets, too, “because institutional care is the most expensive form of long-term care that Medicaid pays for.”

Grassley said he expects the administration will give its strong support to the legislative initiative he’s been pursuing based upon the White House statement that “Obama and Biden will work to give seniors choices about their care, consistent with their needs, and not biased towards institutional care.” A posting on www.whitehouse.gov says that they also “will work to reform the financing of long term care to protect seniors and families, and to improve the quality of elder care training more nurses and health care workers.”

The Medicaid components of the Empowered at Home Act of 2009 succeed legislation that Grassley sponsored in 2005 to give states better options for providing home and community-based services in Medicaid as an alternative to institutional care. Some components of the 2005 legislation became law in 2006, as part of a Deficit Reduction Act that Grassley shepherded through Congress as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. Grassley said that Iowa has been a national leader in taking advantage of the opportunities created by the change in federal law, and that today’s bill is designed to encourage additional states to do the same and provide Medicaid home and community-based services to those in need.

The bill introduced today is nearly identical to legislation that Grassley introduced last July with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Kerry is a cosponsor of today’s bill, too. The Empowered at Home Act of 2009 would:

increase the income level that states can cover through the home and community-based services option created in 2006.
give states the option of implementing “interventional” home and community-based services. A state can choose to offer home and community-based services to people who are on a pathway to accessing the Medicaid institutional benefit before they are Medicaid eligible.
provide grant money for states to administer expanded home and community-based services.
give states the option of allowing people to hold more of their assets so they can maintain their home while receiving home and community-based services.

The legislation introduced today also builds on Grassley’s efforts to help individuals and families manage caregiving costs by making long-term care insurance more affordable. The proposal would:

allow individuals to take an above-the-line federal tax deduction for long-term care insurance premiums.
provide a federal tax credit to long-term caregivers.
permit employers, for the first time, to offer qualified long-term care insurance to employees in cafeteria plans and through tax-free Flexible Spending Accounts.

Grassley is Ranking Member and Kerry is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance, which is responsible for Medicaid and tax legislation. Congress did not act on the bill they introduced last summer.

“The more we can do to make it possible for people to get the care they need at home, the better for seniors, people with disabilities and taxpayers,” Grassley said.

Below is the text of Grassley’s floor statement marking introduction of the Empowered at Home Act of 2009.

Mr./Madam President, I am pleased to join my colleague Senator Kerry today to re-introduce the Empowered at Home Act for the 111th Congress. This bill is a continuation of efforts that I undertook in 2005 and again in 2008 to improve access to home and community based services for those needing long-term care. This is an important piece of legislation that continues our efforts to make cost-effective home and community based care options more available to those who need it.

In 2005, I introduced the Improving Long-term Care Choices Act with Senator Bayh. That legislation set forth a series of proposals aimed at improving the accessibility of long-term care insurance and promoting awareness about the protection that long-term care insurance can offer. It also sought to broaden the availability of the types of long-term care services such as home and community-based care, which many people prefer to institutional care.

The year 2005 ended up being a very important year for health policy as it relates to Americans who need extensive care. In the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Congress passed into law the Family Opportunity Act, the Money Follows the Person initiative, and many critical pieces of the Improving Long-term Care Choices Act. With the bill I am re-introducing today with Senator Kerry, I hope to set us on the path to completing the work we started in 2005 and continued in 2008.
Making our long-term care system more efficient is a critical goal as we consider the future of health care. There are more than 35 million Americans, roughly 12 percent of the U.S. population, over the age of 65. This number is expected to increase dramatically over the next few decades as the baby boomers age and life expectancy increases. According to the U.S. Administration on Aging, by the year 2030, there will be more than 70 million elderly persons in the United States. As the U.S. population ages, more and more Americans will require long-term care services.

The need for long-term care will also be affected by the number of individuals under the age of 65 who may require a lifetime of care. Currently, almost half of all Americans who need long-term care services are individuals with disabilities under the age of 65. This number includes over 5 million working-age adults and approximately 400,000 children.

Long-term care for elderly and disabled individuals, including care at home and in nursing homes, represents almost 40% of Medicaid expenditures. Contrary to general assumptions, it is Medicaid, not Medicare that pays for the largest portion of long-term care for the elderly. Over 65% of Medicaid long-term care expenditures support elderly and disabled individuals in nursing facilities and institutions. Although most people who need long-term care prefer to remain at home, Medicaid spending for long-term care remains heavily weighted toward institutional care.

Section 6086 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA, P.L. 109-171) was based on the Improving Long-term Care Choices Act. The DRA provision authorized a new optional benefit under Medicaid that allows states to extend home and community-based services to Medicaid beneficiaries under the section 1915(i) Home and Community-Based Services State Option. Under this authority, states can offer Medicaid-covered home and community-based services under a state’s Medicaid plan without obtaining a section 1915(c) home and community-based waiver. Eligibility for these section 1915(i) services may be extended only to Medicaid beneficiaries already enrolled in the program whose income does not exceed 150% of the federal poverty level.

To date, only one state, my own state of Iowa, has sought to take advantage of the provision authorized through the DRA. While we had hoped far more states would participate, we know that the relatively low income cap (150%) in the DRA provision creates an administrative complexity that has not made the option appealing for states.

The bill we are re-introducing today mirrors the one we introduced in 2008 during the 110th Congress. In this bill, the income eligibility standard would be raised for access to covered services under section 1915(i) to persons who qualify for Medicaid because their income does not exceed a specified level established by the state up to 300% of the maximum Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payment applicable to a person living at home. This will significantly increase the number of people eligible for these services. States will be able to align their institutional and home and community-based care income eligibility levels.

The bill would also establish two new optional eligibility pathways into Medicaid. These groups would be eligible for section 1915(i) home and community-based services as well as services offered under a state’s broader Medicaid program. Under this bill, states with an approved 1915(k) state plan amendment would have the option to extend Medicaid eligibility to individuals: (1) who are not otherwise eligible for medical assistance; (2) whose income does not exceed 300% of the supplemental security income benefit rate; and (3) who would satisfy state-established needs-based criteria based upon a state’s determination that the provision of home and community-based services would reasonably be expected to prevent, delay, or decrease the need for institutionalized care. Under this new eligibility pathway, states could choose to either limit Medicaid benefits to those home and community-based services offered under section 1915(k) or allow eligibles to access services available under a state’s broader Medicaid program in addition to the 1915(k) benefits. These changes will give the states the option of exploring the use of an interventional use of home and community-based services. If states have the flexibility to provide the benefit as contemplated in the bill, they can try to delay the need for institutional care and keep people in their homes longer.

As the number of Americans reaching retirement age grows proportionally larger, ultimately the number of Americans needing more extensive care will grow. Many of these Americans will look to Medicaid for assistance. States need more tools to provide numerous options to people in need so that they can stay in their own homes as long as possible.

The cost of providing long-term care in an institutional setting is far more expensive care than providing care in the home. States will benefit from having options before them that allow them to keep people appropriately in home settings longer. The more states learn how to use those tools, the more states and ultimately the federal taxpayer will benefit from reduced costs for institutional care.

I am also pleased that this bill will include key provisions from S. 2337, the Long-Term Care Affordability and Security Act of 2007. The bill includes important tax provisions that I introduced in previous Congresses as well, the Improving Long-term Care Choices Act of 2005, introduced in the 109th Congress.

Mr. President, research shows that the elderly population will nearly double by 2030. By 2050, the population of those aged 85 and older will have grown by more than 300 percent. Research also shows that the average age at which individuals need long-term care services, such as home health care or a private room at a nursing home, is 75. Currently, the average annual cost for a private room at a nursing home is more than $75,000. This cost is expected to be in excess of $140,000 by 2030.

Based on these facts, we can see that our nation needs to prepare its citizens for the challenges they may face in old-age. One way to prepare for these challenges is by encouraging more Americans to obtain long-term care insurance coverage. To date, only 10 percent of seniors have long-term care insurance policies, and only 7 percent of all private-sector employees are offered long-term care insurance as a voluntary benefit.

Under current law, employees may pay for certain health-related benefits, which may include health insurance premiums, co-pays, and disability or life insurance, on a pre-tax basis under cafeteria plans and flexible spending arrangements (“FSAs”). Essentially, an employee may elect to reduce his or her annual salary to pay for these benefits, and the employee doesn’t pay taxes on the amounts used to pay these costs. Employees, however, are explicitly prohibited from paying for the cost of long-term care insurance coverage tax-free.

Mr. President, our bill would allow employers, for the first time, to offer qualified long-term care insurance to employees under FSAs and cafeteria plans. This means employees would be permitted to pay for qualified long-term care insurance premiums on a tax-free basis. This would make it easier for employees to purchase long-term care insurance, which many find unaffordable. This should also encourage younger individuals to purchase long-term care insurance. The younger the person is at the time the long-care insurance contract is purchased, the lower the insurance premium.

Our bill also allows an individual taxpayer to deduct the cost of their long-term care insurance policy. In other words, the individual can reduce their gross income by the premiums that they pay for a long-term care policy, and therefore, pay less in taxes. This tax benefit for long-term care insurance should encourage more individuals to purchase these policies. It certainly makes a policy more affordable, especially for younger individuals. This would allow a middle-aged taxpayer to start planning for the future now.

Finally Mr. President, a provision that is included in our bill that I am really pleased with is one that provides a tax credit to long-term caregivers. Long-term caregivers could include the taxpayer him- or herself. Senator Kerry and I recognize that these taxpayers — who have long-term care needs, yet are taking care of themselves — should be provided extra assistance. Also, taxpayers taking care of a family member with long-term care needs would also be eligible for the tax credit. These taxpayers should be given a helping hand. Mr. President, as our population continues to age, the least that we can do is provide a tax benefit for these struggling individuals.