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| Long Term Care Insurance Program |
Effective April 1, 2002, a Long Term Care (LTC) Insurance Plan was made available to State employees on a self-paid basis. MetLife, a leader in long-term care group insurance, offers the new benefit. This benefit is available for Executive Branch employees, House of Representative employees, Senate employees, Legislative Council employees and Judicial employees.
What Is Long-Term Care?
Long-Term Care refers to services and assistance you could need due to illness, an accident, or as a result of the aging process, which have made you unable to take care of yourself. Generally it refers to assistance with everyday activities like eating, dressing, bathing and toileting. It can also include more involved services and even 24-hour care.
Why Do I Need Long-Term Care Insurance?
Long-Term Care insurance provides coverage for expenses that are not usually covered by health or disability insurance. This coverage can help protect you and your family from the high costs associated with prolonged nursing home stays, extended home care services and other forms of daily care. Currently, the cost for nursing home care is $58,000 per year. The cost for having someone come to your home to bathe, feed and dress you can run as high as $23,000 per year.
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Highlights of the New Long-Term Care Insurance Plan
- Your premium is based on your age at your coverage effective date--it will not increase as you get older.
- Affordable group premium rates with convenient payroll deduction.
- You select your level of coverage – there are three benefit levels.
- Enables you to choose where to receive your care – nursing facility and/or home care setting.
- Does not require a stay in a hospital or nursing facility to be eligible for benefits.
- You can continue the coverage on leaving or retiring from the State of Michigan with no increase in premiums.
- Helps protect your other assets and family's lifestyle.
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As a reminder, Long-Term Care Insurance enrollment will continue to be available to current employees and their spouses, parents, in-laws, and grandparents. However, all persons enrolling must be medically underwritten, which means they must show evidence of good health. New employees will be able to sign up within 90 days of their hire date without having to show evidence of good health.
Retirees from all three branches of government and retirees from the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System are eligible to enroll by providing evidence of good health.
For more information about Long-Term Care Insurance, please call MetLife at 1-800-GETMET8 and state your company name as “State of Michigan” when prompted. You can also receive information on MetLife’s web page, http://stateofmichigan.metlife.com.
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