In July, 2006 the Minnesota Long Term Care Partnership began. The partnership is a public-private partnership between the State of Minnesota, private long-term care insurance companies and Minnesota residents. This helps people prepare for the possibility of needing to pay for long-term care services, including assisted living, nursing home care and home care services.

• A person that purchases a qualified partnership policy and eventually needs long-term care services, like help with activities of daily living (dressing, bathing, eating;) uses the policy first to pay for long-term care services before applying for Medical Assistance.
• By using the partnership policy to pay for long-term care services first, the policyholder is able to set aside savings and investments (assets) equal to the amount of benefits paid by the partnership policy if later they need to apply for Medical Assistance to pay for their long-term services. This is known as 'Asset Disregard'. It means that you will have to contribute less of your own money to pay for your care, if you need to apply for Medical Assistance. 
  
• The partnership may also delay or remove the need for you to apply for Medical Assistance because the policy pays for some of the long-term care services. 

The partnership policy must be qualified under federal tax law.

• Policy holder may be able to deduct part of the premium from their taxes as a medical expense
• The benefits received from a partnership qualified policy are generally not taxable as income
• The policyholder is unable to preform two activities of daily living without substantial assistance for at least 90 days before benefits are triggered
• The policyholder must require substantial supervision in order for cognitive impairment to be covered
• A plan of care from a health care practitioner is required for payment of benefits.

The policy must meet federal consumer protection requirements.

The policy must be certified as a qualified Partnership policy by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

The policy was issued on or after July 1, 2006, the effective date for the Minnesota Long Term Care Partnership.

The partnership policy must include inflation protection as follows:

• For a partnership policy purchased by a person under age 61: It must provide compound annual inflation protection
• For a partnership policy purchased by a person age 61 through age 75: Some level of inflation protection is required.
• For a partnership policy purchased by a person age 76 and older: The policy may, but is not required to provide some level of inflation protection.
• Inflation protection for a partnership policy may not be less than one percent per year or a rate based on the consumer price index.

• It gives Minnesota residents more control and choice about the type of long-term care services you want to receive and where you want to receive them.
• The decision of how to pay for your long-term care services sits with the Minnesota resident who bought the partnership policy.
• It is good for the state because it will help Minnesota provide more care and help keep the state's long-term care budget lower. It helps shore up Medical Assistance for Minnesota residents that need long-term care services but have limited resources and income.