The Fed Will Not be Helping

Every 7 seconds another person turns fifty in the United States. Right now there are more people living on earth than in recorded history. In America the fastest growing segment of the population is over 80. History is being made as more people are becoming old and living longer than ever before. Hopefully, you will live long enough to become one of them. If you live that long, however, you will run the financial risks associated with aging. What risk? The risk of having an extended care need. In fact, many people have them now. Hospital care and modern medicine have gotten so good at managing chronic illnesses that more people live longer with impaired health.

Why am I telling you this?

I tell you this because you are in danger and don’t even know it. You are swimming in the financial deep end of the pool and don’t even know it. In reality, seven out of 10 couples will experience a long term care need in their lifetime and most of them will have to pay for care out of their own pockets. This is the first reason why you should educate yourself about long term health care insurance and the number one reason you don’t. The sad truth is you are most likely in denial.

There is no magic genie in a bottle that is going to rescue you. The hard, cold truth is you will be financing your aging expenses yourself. With outlays running as high as $70,000 a year in 2008 this is nothing to take lightly.

More denial and another reason to seriously look at long term care insurance and getting educated about your choices.

One day in the future long term health care insurance will be as typical as automotive or life insurance but for the here and now it’s an unusual idea. It is also an idea no one wants - after all who wants to imagine they’re ever going to need health care assistance. The denial of needing care is thick and lasting.

I bet right now, if I asked you “who do you know who has a long term care need” you could probably come up with a name or two. As for me I can name several. My father who was in a nursing home for 8 months; my Aunt who is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, my other Aunt who has been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia or Parkinson’s (they aren’t quite sure). If I had asked each of them “will you have a long term care need in your lifetime?” they all would have said no. Another reason you don’t have long term care insurance - you deny this is ever going to be your story. The truth is you can’t predict the future.

Now you may never have a long term care need but in reality seven out of 10 couples do. My father did and my mother hasn’t. My Aunt’s have but my Uncle’s haven’t. This is denial reason number four. You take it for granted that everything is a-okay and will stay that way. The reality is that when a spouse gets sick the other has to start writing the checks and while one bottoms out physically the other bottoms out financially.

I can hear your thoughts – but the government will be helping me; they’ll pay for everything. Yeah, right. The government is slowly bankrupting itself as it is. With over 80 million baby boomer’s headed for retirement the social services are going to be strained on every level, state, federal, county. Furthermore Medicare does not pay for long term care. You have a limited number of days of Medicare coverage, lifetime caps and co-pays. If it does pay for long term care you have to be in need of skilled care. The truth is that Medicaid is the largest payor. What is Medicaid? It is medical welfare. How do you get it? You qualify through poverty. You spend your money until you qualify. Reason number five: you deny your risk of entering poverty in order to qualify for government help. Ouch!

Oh, I can hear your thoughts – but my kids will take care of me. Are you aware that as of 2008 the money and time lost to care giving is more than 80 billion dollars a year. By denying the risks and costs of aging you are throwing the weight of consequence on your children, their jobs and their lifestyle. This is not a solution this is denial and reason number six.

The last reason you don’t have long term health care insurance is because you don’t care enough about yourself. You owe it to yourself to plan for your life, lifestyle and financial future. Whether long term care insurance is the solution for you is unknown but what is known all of us are living longer and because of this you will face financial risks never before faced; financial risks that can literally wipe you out. Get educated today so you don’t become a statistic tomorrow.

P.S As an ex-agent and former long term care insurance specialist I invite you to learn what agents won’t tell you and companies hope you’ll never find out. Get the leaked chapters or read “Insider’s Secrets“.

Technorati Tags: long term care, Long Term Care Insurance, medicaid planning, Medicare

Hillary Clinton may be closing out her campaign - who knows really - but at least she speaks sense, or as I like to say “cents”.

In a talk directed to female voters Senator Clinton, her daughter Chelsea and her mother, Dorothy Rodham, discussed ideas for helping working families. Mrs. Clinton suggested an experiment between the federal and state governments to fund paid family leave, arguing that most people can’t afford to take the unpaid leave allowed under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

Her proposal calls for a $3,000 tax credit to an individual with substantial long-term care needs or their caregivers, a tax credit to cover 75 percent of long-term care insurance premiums and expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employers with 25 or more workers. She also called for seven guaranteed sick days for full-time workers.

Her proposal is critical to families everywhere who are now facing and who will face the daunting task of caring for their family members.

For years there has been lobbying to make long term care insurance premiums tax deductible or at the very minimum provide some kind of tax incentive.

While I may be a voice in the wilderness I want to say “Thanks Hillary”. As a side-note and postscript I’ve yet to hear any of the male candidates talk about long term care. Could it be that since most of the caregivers are women that men don’t fully appreciate the consequences?

Technorati Tags: long term care, Long Term Care Insurance, paid family leave, Senator Clinton, tax credit

Terry Savage, finance writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and nationally syndicated columnist recently wrote an article on the failing long term health care system. As she mentions in her article the government has sealed its lips when it comes to discussing the cost of financing care.

In the small town of East Troy, Wisconsin the paper ran a story and headline about saving The Manor, the 30 year old Kiwanis’ nursing home. It seems they just can’t keep it afloat. According to the article The Manor, a triple-A-rated facility, has $400,000 in bills greater than its accounts receivable. How did this happen?

The government isn’t paying the bills, or at least not all of them. In 2006 the government reimbursed only 75% of the charges and then in 2007 reduced the reimbursement even further. When a business operates in the red, like The Manor has been, it’s bound to run into trouble. Adding insult to injury the state ordered the nursing home to add a certified nursing assistant to each shift which increased their payroll by $100,000 but at the same time the state reduced its reimbursement to The Manor by $40,000 per year.

In another revealing story from a small Wisconsin town paper “to save taxpayer dollars, the county has gradually increased the number of beds available for patients who can pay privately … and that means fewer beds are available for indigent patients covered by government-subsidized Medicaid“.

If you think the Fed is going to help you with your aging think again. In Insider’s Secrets I discuss this probable future where you have the choice of hedging your bets or rolling the dice with the government and being left to squander in sub-standard or non-available care.

Long term health care is an issue that no one wants to face. Even though the Federal government has offered its workers LTC insurance coverage they refuse to discuss the topic with the public. The Fed’s have seen the writing on the wall with their own people - nothing like Washington to cover their own you know whats - but their lips are sealed when it comes to you and me.

Technorati Tags: long term care, Nursing home, Senior Health