States are looking at a new way of reducing future Medicaid spending -- urge residents to purchase long-term care insurance.

Last year, six million letters bearing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's name and official state seal went out to Californians.

The missives, sent by a direct-mail company called Senior Direct Inc., were pitch letters, urging many low- and middle-income residents to buy long-term care insurance to cover any future nursing home bills.

Behind the plug: California, like many other states, is trying to curb the high costs of long-term care paid under Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income people. Last year, total Medicaid expenditures for older adults' nursing-facility and other long-term care bills hit $100 billion.

So, more states are encouraging such citizens to buy private insurance. Along with California, 14 other states are now promoting long-term care policies under marketing partnerships with the insurance industry. More than a dozen others are getting started.

Some, however, are upset with this trend:

Patricia White, a director of the National Association of Free Clinics, which provides medical care to the needy, says many people of modest means are already struggling to pay for prescription drugs and other essentials. "They can't even buy medicine, why should they buy a [long-term care] insurance policy?"

Of course, taxpayers are struggling under the weight of out-of-control Medicaid spending, so why should they provide long-term care for people who fail to plan for their future?

Although it does make little sense for people to spend money on these premiums if the government will provide free long-term care. For long-term care insurance to have any traction, this perverse incentive must first be addressed.