Washington-- U.S. Senator Evan Bayh announced today that his legislation to increase long-term care options for seniors and persons with disabilities passed Congress late yesterday. Bayh's legislation will protect hard-working Americans from losing their savings to pay for long-term care and give states the flexibility to allow more seniors and children with disabilities to be cared for at home, instead of an institution. Nearly 10 million Americans needed long-term care services in 2000 and that number is expected to grow as the baby boomer population ages.

"It is essential that we provide long-term care options that help hard-working Americans protect themselves from losing their savings to pay for long-term care," Senator Bayh said. "I have serious reservations about this spending bill, but I am happy to announce my bipartisan plan for long-term care. It will provide better care options and financial security to many seniors as they get older, while at the same time helping states control their health care costs."

The long-term care legislation was included as part of the spending reconciliation conference agreement, which now awaits only the President's signature before becoming law. Although Senator Bayh voted against the agreement in the Senate because it contains significant cuts to key health, education, and social programs that provide critical services to many American families, he has worked for years to improve the availability and affordability of long-term care services.

Bayh's legislation would give Americans the opportunity to purchase insurance to protect a certain amount of their savings and possessions in the event that they exhausted their ability to pay for long-term care and needed Medicaid to pay for their services. The legislation was modeled off a successful Indiana program that Bayh initiated as governor of Indiana, allowing Hoosiers to purchase long-term care insurance. At least 16 other states have approved legislation that would allow them to mirror Indiana's success, but current federal law bars them from doing so. Bayh's legislation would allow other states to follow Indiana's lead, increasing the number of companies offering policies and providing consumers and seniors with more choices and benefits.

This legislation offers significant savings to states because seniors with long-term care insurance are less likely to access Medicaid dollars to pay for their care. According to Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, the state saves $35,000 per person for every year that person is able to delay using Medicaid to cover their long-term care costs. In Indiana, 31,042 partnerships policies have been sold, and only 13 individuals have needed to access the Medicaid program, representing millions of dollars in savings for the state. Bayh's legislation would also ensure that long-term care partnership plans meet certain consumer protection standards.

"It is simply not right that parents are forced to place their aging parent or child with disabilities in an institution because they can't afford their care," Senator Bayh said. "With my legislation, states will have the flexibility to allow more seniors and children with disabilities to be cared for at home, by loved ones."

In addition, Bayh's plan would -- for the first time - allow states to use their Medicaid dollars to pay for at-home and community-based long-term care without obtaining a federal waiver. These options are frequently less expensive than complete nursing home care and are often preferred by the patient. Under current law, states can only provide home-based care to a limited number of people. As a result, states including Indiana have up to ten-year long waiting lists of patients seeking such care. Bayh's legislation would allow states to offer home or community-based services to thousands more seniors and persons with disabilities.

A member of the Aging Committee, Senator Bayh has focused on providing quality, affordable long-term care for Indiana's senior citizens. In addition to his work expanding long-term care options, Bayh has fought to create a $3,000 tax credit to off-set the expenses incurred by family members who care for their loved ones at home. One of Bayh's earliest actions as Senator was to cosponsor the Nursing Home Resident Protection Amendment in 1999 to prevent nursing homes from evicting the 68% of nursing home residents who need Medicaid to pay the cost of living in a nursing home.

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