7 Long-Term Care Program Ideas for Taxphobic Times

Long-term care experts are skeptical about the idea that workers will be willing to pay a new payroll tax to fund state long-term care benefits programs. The experts have ideas for other ways to provide care for aging Americans. For a look at seven of the ideas, from a new report from the Society of Actuaries Research Institute's Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program, see the gallery above.

What It Means

Policymakers are looking for ways to care for the "oldest old" in spite of partisan gridlock. Eventually, some of the ideas in the new SOA report could make it into federal or state laws and regulations.

The New Study

Minnesota is looking into the idea of using a new payroll tax to fund a public long-term care insurance program. Program designers have suggested that the LTCI program could hold costs down and maximize protection for people with a high level of need for care by having benefits begin only after an enrollee gets through a waiting period. The proposed waiting periods could range from one year for people with annual income under $50,000, to four years for people with annual income over $120,000. The SOA institute team assessed the proposal by interviewing 32 LTCI stakeholders to get their reactions. Many of the experts interviewed said they liked the proposal, but some argued that starting a new stand-alone program would run up against "a larger national trend of opposing any additional funding for social programs on a state or national basis," the study team notes. (Image: Adobe Stock)