Courtney, Prague Seek To Incentivize Long-Term Care Insurance
by Hugh McQuaid | Jun 22, 2012 12:22pm
(10) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Health Care, Taxes
With 80 million baby boomers set to retire over the next few decades, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney and state Sen. Edith Prague are backing a bill that would incentivize the purchase of long-term care insurance.
The two held a press conference Friday to discuss a bill Courtney has proposed that would establish a tax deduction for long-term care premiums. If passed, the tax credit would cover 25 percent of the premiums in 2013, 35 percent in 2014, 65 percent in 2015, and 100 percent in the years after.
“This is going to encourage people to buy long-term care insurance,” said Prague, who has pushed for similar proposals at the state level. “I mean the premiums are very costly.”
The bill would also provide an income tax credit for long-term care providers, which would be based on how many individuals the for which the provider is caring.
Courtney said the Congressional Budget Office hadn’t yet had a chance to do a fiscal analysis of the bill but he said its budgetary impact likely will be outweighed by the savings created as more people by health insurance rather than rely on Medicaid.
“There’s no question that tax credits have an impact on the budget, but I would point out that doing nothing, I think, has an even bigger impact on the budget,” he said.
Both Prague and Courtney said they expect bipartisan support for the proposal.
“We’re all going to grow old and Republicans as well as Democrats have to face up to the issue that the growing elderly population in this country is the fastest growing group in our society,” Prague said. “I can’t believe anyone would be so foolish as to think this is a partisan issue.”
Prague, at 86 years old, is not seeking re-election this year. She joked that she grew old only recently.
“It’s shocking, you know, you wake up one day and all the sudden you have a birthday and you say, ‘Oh my God, how did I get here?’ When I woke up and I was 86 years old, I thought, ‘That’s not me, it can’t be me.’ But bango, it happens,” she said.
Tags: Long-term care, Joe Courtney, Edith Prague, elderly, aging, dh
(10) Comments
posted by: JAM | June 22, 2012 12:30pm
I didn’t realize Edith Prague joined the US Congress.
Is her “support” going to carry the day in DC?
posted by: saramerica | June 22, 2012 1:58pm
It’s easy to be flip about this JAM, but this is a really serious issue. My father has Alzheimers. Fortunately, because we were aware of a family history on his side, over 10 years ago at my brother’s urging, he and I started splitting the cost of a LT care policy for our parents. Has it been a financial strain to do it at times? Damn straight. But not nearly the catastrophe as it would have been for my mom last year when we had to put my father in assisted living if we hadn’t done that. And at least I know that Dad, who sacrificed so much for me when I was growing up, is well looked after and comfortable.
posted by: CitizenCT | June 22, 2012 2:46pm
Are they proposing a tax deduction or tax credit? The article is unclear, and the two are different. Long term care is already tax deductible if you itemize. Long term care will be an ever growing problem as the population ages. The HHS implementers of Obamacare bailed out on voluntary long term care insurance program (CLASS) which couldn’t be sustained without additional tax dollars. Seems like a 100% tax credit is the equivalent of a new unsustainable entitlement program. Maybe Joe has some other ideas to meet the need. Joe needs to learn to get to the root cause of problems. The cost of insurance isn’t the primary problem, it is the cost of providing long term care which drives the insurance premiums. Joe missed the boat on college interest rates too. If college was affordable and didn’t inflate so much more than the rest of the economy, the interest rate on college loans wouldn’t matter so much.
posted by: Christine Stuart | June 22, 2012 3:11pm
To be clear for the public it is a deduction, but for the provider it is a tax credit.
posted by: JAM | June 22, 2012 4:08pm
Being flip about Edith Prague and LTC are two different things. I readily confess to the former.
Another article on today’s CTNJ reports that the state is dipping into RHC funds to pay the bills. I’d be far more impressed if Prague were calling on Malloy and her fellow legislators to solve the current and looming financial deficits faced by state government.
Instead she chooses to grandstand on issues on which she has little knowledge or any influence.
So, yes, I am flip about Prague, and will remain so until I see her show some interest in resolving the current fiscal problems at the state level she helped create.
posted by: redlady | July 6, 2012 9:30pm
It’s incredible that Congressman Courtney can’t let a week go by without coming up with a new scheme to aid his re-election campaign. Last week it was the college loan bill, now this. He continues to ignore the wishes of his constituents and plods on without any signs of finding a way to cut spending. It must be true that Democrats have become Demotax. It’s the only way to pay for all the bells and whistles he fights for. As for these two on the same podium, it reminds me of two peas in a pod.
posted by: ... | July 7, 2012 3:17pm
redlady: Courtney brought up the student loan issue in March (not ‘last week’, plus the bill was signed yesterday), and kept on about it up until its passage, effectively helping young students entering an uncertain jobs market sustain a 3.4 percent interest rate on said loans, rather than increase (double) to 6.8%. It also passed 373-52 in the House (strong bipartisanship) and 74-19 in the Senate. Maybe you should do some research on how this was an actual issue, and not some ‘campaign stump’ legislation.
Though perhaps you’re not the parent of any child entering college or just exiting it. The thousands of college aged CT constituents (and their parents) in his district alone are thankful, as well as the thousands more across CT, and millions in throughout country.
posted by: redlady | July 8, 2012 7:54am
..., you are part of our problem: another citizen still unaware of the seriousness of our national debt crisis. First hand knowledge of college debt? Yeh, paid those off ourselves, then made sure our kids understood their responsibility for a portion of theirs after we paid the majority of the balance (because our prosperity made them ineligible for free help). Instead of throwing ourselves a pity-party over it, we taught our kids their responsibility in paying back whatever debt they choose to take on. The taxpayer picks up whatever Congress passes to build their voting base. And I don’t care when he started the conversation - it was completed last week. Teach myself something? Yeh, it’s called history. We keep repeating it with help of those who cannot connect the dots.
posted by: ... | July 8, 2012 1:19pm
Oh you make me smile so much redlady. I’m sure your experience with college debt however many years ago is exactly the same as today. The availability of jobs for college-aged kids is exactly the same as it was back in the ‘good old days’. The affordability of education is exactly the same. I wish history would repeat itself in terms of a positive economic environment for students to work, rather than their laid off elders who helped build the mess take those jobs, and then complain about the mess the government is in 
.
You have a wonderful weekend redlady, you’ll always have a special place in my funny bone. You may not care about the conversation and the facts behind the votes and signatures, instead creating dots to line up the cross hairs of political gamesmanship with a pinch of rehashed rhetoric, but I sure do.
posted by: redlady | July 8, 2012 6:33pm
..., I do not consider our national debt as rhetoric. Rather I recognize that our tax dollars are being spent in many irresponsible ways. Now, if we have a big bank acct built up for “extras”, well, maybe I’d give a little. But, the last I looked 15+T in debt is nothing to laugh about. Smiley faces isn’t exactly what I’ll be making at Congressman Courtney who continues to abuse taxpayer money to further his re-election campaign.