Date: 2006-03-07
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the fact that Mr. GINGREY is holding these to help inform people of exactly what Congress is doing on the issue of health care. I am sure when every Member here goes back into their district. people ask them about health care. In my district. of course. the issue is always not only just health care for seniors. but also veterans. And Dr. Murphy was absolutely correct that the VA was the first entity to begin computerizing their records. which is the reason why a veteran can go from New York at a VA facility down to one in Florida. and virtually with a few key strokes. they pull up his or her record. That is a good way to make sure that we have continuity of care. In Florida. of course. we have many. many nursing homes. People move to Florida. and as they age in Florida. the nursing home industry is a very. very vital part of our economy. When.I was a State senator. I worked long and hard on nursing home issues. We did nursing home reform. And one of the reasons that we did nursing home reform was because we wanted to increase the staffing and make sure that nursing homes provided the kind of quality care that we all want for our seniors who are in nursing homes. But. you know. one of the issues clearly is the cost not just for those living in a nursing home. but also for younger families who have got to care for older parents or loved ones. very often termed the sandwich generation. You know..longterm care costs can be very. very stifling. And I agree about having them be able to roll into a medical savings account. It is certainly a very important component of what we are trying to do long term. You know. you do not fix health care forever. The need for health care reform continues as technology - improves. as we all age. and also as we take into consideration all of the. new pharmaceutical products that are out there that prevent people from going into hospitals. and. many times. nursing homes. You know. that sandwich generation I was just speaking about. they are the ones who are very often helping to care for their parents. You know. nursing home costs can be upwards of $60.000 if a person does not have insurance. And home health care costs can sometimes reach $20.000 a year. When we look at the demographics. those who are 85 years of age or older are the most likely candidates for longterm care service. But age is .not the only indicator. Actually- people of any age with limited selfcare or mobility issues are candidates as well. For the average person over age 50. home health care can cost over $5.800 a year. Even families who have longterm care insurance .are facing hefty costs. Kind of base plan premiums run between $564 a year for a 50yearold. for example. to $5.300 a year for someone who is 79. When families can no longer cover these costs. Medicaid has to pick up the tab for those who do not have longterm care insurance. And when we look at the spending in Medicaid. onethird nationwide of all Medicaid spending goes toward longterm care. Moreover. twothirds of these funds are used for institutional- care. even though consumers prefer to remain in their own homes and communities. I am sure. Dr. GINGREY. that in your State as well as in my State. that they have applied for waivers. kind of all efforts possible to keep people in their own homes. People prefer to be in their own homes. but there are times when they do need to be in longterm care. One of the bills that I recently introduced that I know many of my colleagues are on. is the Qualified LongTerm Care Fairness Act. We want to encourage people to participate in longterm care insurance. This bill provides the same tax deduction available to those who itemize as those who do not. Currently only people who itemize on their income tax can take off the cost of longterm care insurance. This was obviously overlooked when they passed the bill. in that .they only allow people who itemize. We want to make sure that this tax deduction may be used for longterm care insurance premiums. activities of daily living. diagnostic. preventative or rehabilitation services. and certainly other services prescribed by a licensed health care practitioner. My bill also. by the way. covers home health care expenses. By taking out a policy. it really and truly helps the family so very much. We want to make sure that this additional tax deduction can be claimed by people who take that extra card to be sure that if they need nursing home care that they have the insurance to cover it. You know. Mr. Speaker. in 2001. spending for longterm care services for persons of all ages represented 12.2 percent of all personal health care spending. This was almost $152 billion of $1.24 trillion spent for health care. Congress should encourage all Americans to purchase longterm care insurance. And certainly this is but one way that we can encourage our constituents to spend that money for a longterm care policy. If I may take a moment just of personal privilege to tell a story about a very dear gentleman that everyone thought he was my dad. he was not. He had three daughters and he cared about those daughters. Because he lived in the same community that I did. and because we were very close. people just thought that Arne was my father. Well. let me tell you. Arne was a very. very thoughtful father. because he took out longterm care insurance. He developed Alzheimers. and needed to be in a longterm care facility. His wife had passed on and the progression was very. very fast. Arne passed away last year. but I can just tell the Members in the Chamber tonight and those who may be watching in the audience. that Arnes children truly appreciated