Federal process slows Guinn plan to help seniors

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 | 10:46 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Another of Gov. Kenny Guinn's programs to help senior citizens is encountering problems.

Approved by the 1999 Legislature, the so-called "Nest Egg Protection Plan" has been shot down, at least temporarily, by the federal government.

Guinn fashioned a program to encourage those over 55 to buy an insurance policy to cover the costs for up to three years in a nursing home. In return, the senior would be able to keep up to $200,000 a year in income and the nursing home care costs would be paid by Medicaid when his insurance policy expired.

But the Health Care Financing Administration has rejected the plan, partly because it didn't feel that individuals with that much income should be getting government relief.

"It was a good idea," said Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, who headed a legislative study committee looking into the problems of long-term care. "The incentive was to pick up long-term care insurance. People don't realize they need it."

McGinness said the Guinn administration may have to rework the plan and resubmit it to the federal agency. And the state law may have to be changed so the state could qualify for a federal waiver.

Medicaid, a program financed 50-50 by the state and federal governments, pays nursing home costs for a number of the needy elderly. The state has another program in which it pays other costs and there is a joint program between the state and the counties to pick up some of the costs.

Under the Guinn proposal, senior citizens would be kept off government support until their insurance expired in three years. Then the federal government and the state would share the cost, rather than the state and counties picking up the tab.

Guinn's other senior citizen program -- to help low-income people buy prescription drugs -- got off to a slow start, enrolling only 300 people in the first month of November. The governor said the pace has picked up and there are 20-25 more elderly people signing up daily to buy low-cost insurance to help cover the rising costs of drugs.

State Human Resources Director Charlotte Crawford said Wednesday the denial from the federal government came within the past few months and her department is now studying similar programs in other states. She hopes to draw up a new waiver request soon and submit it for approval to Guinn.

"Waivers take a long time to process," she said, referring to the federal government.

Guinn said, "We can't move the federal government. It's a slow process." For instance, he said, the 1997 Legislature allocated $500,000 for home care for disabled people rather than putting them in an institution. But the state didn't get the waiver until this year.

"I've adjusted to a slower process. There is nothing you can do but adjust," Guinn said.