CHAPTER 213 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 1614 A Concurrent Resolution encouraging decreased dependence on public moneys to
finance long-term care and education concerning long-term care insurance.       WHEREAS,  Science, technology, nutrition and other factors have in-
creased life expectancy and have set our nation on a course for a major
expansion of our mid-life and older populations; and

      WHEREAS,  The average life expectancy is now almost 80 years and,
often, the blessing of longer life means that diseases of aging that require
long-term or custodial care, such as Alzheimer's disease, are more prev-
alent; and

      WHEREAS,  Changes in the structure of the nuclear family, such as
two-earner households, make families less able to care for an aging parent
on a full-time basis; and

      WHEREAS,  Currently, 5.8 million people aged 65 or older need long-
term care and this number will increase as more people survive heart
attacks, cancer, strokes and other ailments that once were fatal; and

      WHEREAS,  Medicare does not cover the cost of nursing home care,
assisted living, residential health care or other long-term care except for
100 days of rehabilitation; and

      WHEREAS,  The primary source of private financing of long-term care
is the income and savings of the elderly, the disabled and their families
or medicaid, a program for the poor; and

      WHEREAS,  The average cost for care in a nursing home in the United
States is $40,000-$50,000 a year and that figure is certain to increase; and

      WHEREAS,  Kansas seniors must spend their life savings and contrib-
ute all their income before medicaid pays for their care; and

      WHEREAS,  Long-term care insurance can play an important role in
helping to provide better quality and choice of long-term care and pro-
tection against the cost of long-term care and the expenditure of a lifetime
of savings; and

      WHEREAS, The department of social and rehabilitation services and
the department on aging work to inform and educate applicants for med-
ical assistance of such department's powers and duties under the state
and federal laws to recover the costs of medical assistance provided from
the estates of medical assistance recipients, including kinds and amounts
of allowable expenditures or other utilizations of assets to acquire exempt
or other property so that such assets are excluded from such income
calculations and also including the use of trusts to allowably reduce an
individual's net worth when applying for medical assistance; and

      WHEREAS, The state's goal should be to encourage purchase of long-
term insurance not only to protect the public from asset loss, but also to
protect the Medicaid program for the truly needy; and

      WHEREAS,  Long-term care insurance can help assure the security,
dignity and independence of Kansans as they age as well as decrease the
dependence on public moneys to finance long-term care: Now, therefore,

      Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Kansas, the House of Rep-
resentatives concurring therein:  That in order to decrease dependence
on public moneys to finance long-term care and, in order to help assure
the security, dignity and independence of Kansas senior citizens, the sec-
retary of the Kansas department on aging and the Kansas department of
social and rehabilitation services are urged to begin an education and
awareness campaign that makes Kansans aware of the potential cost of
long-term care and encourages them to invest in long-term care insurance
at an age when it is affordable and to encourage the Kansas department
of social and rehabilitation services to aggressively pursue a waiver to
allow a five-year look back period for all transfers of assets considered in
determining Medicaid eligibility on and after the effective date of such
waiver being adopted and to report back to the 2003 Kansas legislature
regarding potential legislative action; and

      Be it further resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send
an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Secretary of the Department on
Aging and Secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabili-
tation Services.

 Adopted by the House May 1, 2002.
Adopted by the Senate
May 2, 2002.
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