Missouri can reduce its long term care spending through the implementation of a long-term care partnership program, according to a recently released student task force report. The report assesses long-term care partnership programs and their potential for financing long-term care services in the state of Missouri. Students completed the analysis as part of a course in social policy and aging. 

According to the report, Missouri could reduce its Medicaid spending by seven percent through partnership programs targeting middle to lower income residents, individual who might not otherwise purchase long-term care insurance. In order to effectively reach this target audience, the task force recommends the following:

• Offering a tax credit for those with lower incomes
• Providing deductions through cafeteria plans and flexible spending accounts offered by employers
• Allowing premium payments without penalty from IRA, 401(k) and other similar tax-deferred retirement accounts.
• Initiating a comprehensive consumer education program about long-term care services.

The task force also suggests that that the state of Missouri could realize greater savings with the expansion of its existing long term care programs such as the Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly.

Partnership programs are designed to encourage individuals to purchase long-term care insurance by sharing the costs of policy premiums with the state. California, Connecticut, New York and Indiana developed the first partnership programs in 1987 as part of a four-state demonstration project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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