Archives for February 2011

Nursing Homes Look Younger

February 28, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

“Nursing Homes Look Younger” by Renee Lee was published in the February 21, 2011 Houston Chronicle.

From the article: “People ages 31 to 64 have entered nursing homes at a higher rate than those 65 and older in the past eight years, according to data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The age group has climbed to 14 percent of the nursing home population.”

This statistic ties in with my most recent blog about a friend in his mid-50s who had an accident about three months ago that bruised his spinal cord and temporarily rendered him a quadriplegic. He is slipping through the cracks of our medical system. His medical insurance carrier doesn’t want to pay for the extended nursing home care he needs. They claim that he is not recuperating quickly enough, despite the fact that according to his physical therapist, he is making good progress. So they want to send him home, where his wife is ill equipped to care for him. Sadly, the couple does not own long-term care insurance (LTCi). If they did, it would most likely defray enough of the cost of his care to make a big difference in their lives.

I do not know how our friends will finance the cost of long-term care. In the Houston Chronicle article referenced above, it appears that Tim Lowe, the patient described, is on Medicaid. Under current regulations in the US, he was required to spend his wealth down to poverty level before qualifying for Medicaid assistance, and he can receive long-term care only in a facility that accepts Medicaid.

Lots of Younger People Need Care

February 28, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

People under 65 often need long-term care and have not prepared for this possibility.

We have a friend in his mid-50s who suffered a spinal injury and is now quadriplegic. One minute he was OK, and suddenly after a fall at home, he was not. He has been told that he can make a decent recovery with about a year of intensive re-hab.

The problem is that his health insurance paid the acute part of his expenses – his care in the hospital and at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Memorial Hermann Hospital – but it does not pay for the chronic, ongoing care necessary for his continued recovery.

I recently learned that the nursing home where he’s been getting rigorous physical therapy, five days a week, for the past month or so, wants him discharged. His physical therapist reported that he was making good progress, but his progress has not been speedy enough for his insurance company. His insurance company is very eager to quit paying, and the family is now fighting it out with his medical insurer.

This very tragic situation is unfortunately far too common in today’s medical landscape.

This family is ill prepared to cope with their situation, which is clearly taking a toll on them.

If they owned long-term care insurance (LTCi), their situation would be quite different and they would have many more options. An LTCi policy would have helped defray the expenses of his much needed, ongoing home health care and physical therapy.

CLASS Act LTC Rests on Sickbed

February 23, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

My colleagues and I, across the board in the long-term care industry, ranging from advisors like me to the leading actuaries, have been saying for a few years now that the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (or CLASS) Act is unsustainable.

CLASS Act long-term care (LTC) is part of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s legacy in the new health care law, intended to allow the chronically ill and people with disabilities to continue living in their homes.

A story in the February 22 New York Times titled, “Long-Term Care Needs Changes, Officials Say” reports that officials in the Obama administration finally agree with what we’ve been trying to tell them all this time: in its current state, CLASS Act LTC is not viable. It will not attract the number of enrollees projected, it will be a magnet for what we call “adverse selection” (people who are ineligible, due to their health, for conventional long-term care insurance) and it cannot stay in the black.

This article is excellent. It explains why CLASS Act LTC in its current form is “a dog that will not hunt.”

President’s Day Message from Terry Savage

February 21, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

I am a huge fan of Terry Savage’s.

I’m providing a link to her piece titled “Pols are making us pay for their false promises” (Chicago Sun Times, Feb 21, 2011) because no one says it more succinctly and eloquently than Terry does.

Terry is describing the unsustainable “house of cards” that’s been created by continued spending of government money that doesn’t exist.

Government funding of long-term care is just one such entitlement.

If you agree with my opinion that it is entirely unrealistic to expect any help from the government when it comes to paying long-term care costs, you understand that long-term care insurance ownership is the only way to ensure dignity, options and choices if you wind up needing long-term care.

ElderRage-or-Take My Father…Please!

February 13, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

I’ve just fininshed reading “ElderRage-or-Take My Father…Please!” by Jacqueline Marcell (Irvine, CA: Impressive Press, 2001). I’d heard about this book for a long time and am sorry it took me so long to read it. I got my copy from Amazon.

I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting insight into the psychology of caregiving to the elderly. Ms. Marcell’s account is “from the trenches”. She describes the ordeal of being a caregiver to both of her parents, who suffered from dementia, in addition to other health problems. She does this all with great humor, which kept me very engaged in what was actually a very sad story. In addition to vividly describing how and why she became her parent’s parent, Ms. Marcell gives practical solutions and advice for the caregiver.

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Archives for February 2011

Nursing Homes Look Younger

Lots of Younger People Need Care

CLASS Act LTC Rests on Sickbed

President’s Day Message from Terry Savage

ElderRage-or-Take My Father…Please!

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