The Senate Democrats agreed on redefining the nations health care system Saturday and hope to have legislation in the very near future. The Bill includes a new national insurance plan including a government run long term care insurance program. This could have a significant effect on elder law planning. Let’s see if this provision survives in the conference bill.
Regarding the estate tax expected legislation we note that the provisions as contained in the McDermott Bill and the Baucas Bill introduced earlier this year as discussed in our Updates were not part of the Bill passed earlier this month by the House; some of the items include: portability of estate tax exemptions between spouses, re-coupling of the gift tax exemption with the estate tax exemption, and re-instituting the state death tax credit. Will these items be in the Senate version? The more significant question in the couple weeks before New Years is…. will there even be a Senate Bill passed this year?