Posted on: Monday, January 31, 2005

EDITORIAL
We must face up to long-term-care needs

Social Security may not be in crisis, but we'll tell you what is: An avalanche of elder-care needs is looming, and we're not prepared.

Certainly, Gov. Linda Lingle's proposal to offer tax credits to people who purchase private long-term-care insurance for in-home assistance or skilled nursing care would offer some help.

But at a cost of more than $3,000 a year, private long-term-care insurance isn't accessible to everyone, even with tax credits.

Which is a good reason for Hawai'i to dust off the CarePlus plan introduced in 2002 by former first lady Vicky Cayetano.

It would provide limited long-term-care benefits through a $10-a-month payroll tax. After a 10-year vesting period, the benefits would pay for a year of supplemental care at $70 a day. (By current estimates, home care can range from $50 to $150 per day.)

Lingle vetoed the CarePlus bill, saying it would offer minimal benefits at a substantial cost and would be regressive.

But it's a necessary step to address the long-term-care needs around the corner and should be one of many tools at our disposal.

If you believe Medicaid and Medicare will pick up the tab, think again. Medicare only pays for a small amount of short-term nursing home care, not the years of care required by many aging adults. As for Medicaid, which requires folks to be virtually impoverished to qualify, it pays for some home care or nursing home costs, but it's still not enough.

Indeed, most folks these days pay two-thirds of the cost of long-term care directly out of pocket from their personal savings and the sale of assets like stocks and their homes.

We have a short window of opportunity to address the challenges of long-term care before we're swamped by soaring demands. We must act now to install a safety net. So let's dust off CarePlus, and get it ready for prime time.