Through the Legislative Bill 965, the Nebraska long term care partnership program was created in 2006, and made possible by the joint effort of the local state government and some private insurance providers. This program aims to give Nebraskans an affordable and more flexible LTC policy options for them to start considering buying one for their future LTC needs.

Policies under this partnership program are tax-qualified and provide certain asset protection features that give advantage to the policy owners by making them keep a portion of their assets should they try to avail Medicaid benefits in the future.

One of the many advantages of a partnership policy that not all LTC plans purchased from private insurance companies have is the Dollar-for-Dollar asset protection feature. It is automatically included and provided when a person buys a partnership policy in the state where he lives. With this feature, Medicaid disregards a dollar of the person’s assets when the policy owner applies for eligibility. The amount of disregarded assets is equal to the amount that his partnership policy has paid out in benefits.

Usually, a person with a partnership policy applies for Medicaid benefits if his medical condition requires him to receive extended or additional attention and care that are provided through the LTC services. But remember that owning a Nebraska long term care partnership plan does not assure an individual of automatically receiving benefits from Medicaid because he still has to go through evaluation and must also meet the requirements set by Medicaid.

Owners of partnership policies also enjoy the reciprocity standards as agreed by the different participating states in the partnership program. This feature enables the insured individuals to use their partnership policies bought in Nebraska in other states given that it also participates in the reciprocity agreement of the program. With this, there is no need for the individual to purchase another LTC policy because his plan is still valid and usable.

Partnership policies also offer the same features as that of the other private LTC policies like minimum daily benefit amount, minimum benefit coverage period, and inflation protection. These three are needed in order for a policy to be considered valid and authorized.

The inflation protection in partnership policies is based according to the age of the person when he purchased his policy. It is more advisable to buy LTC plans at a younger age in order to avail it cheaper and get higher levels of inflation protection. Those policies that were availed at age 76 and up do not necessarily need inflation protection but the insurance provider may still offer some alternatives to the insured person.

Aside from the age of the person and the exact location where he plans to live and receive his partnership policy benefits, some other factors being considered in determining the rates of the monthly premiums include the present health condition of the individual, the medical history of his family, and if he is a smoker or non-smoker.

In order to qualify and avail a Nebraska long term care partnership policy, the person must be a certified resident of the state and must also be able to present proofs and other documents needed such proof of income, and Social Security Number.