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Archives for September 2013

National Commission on Long-Term Care Finds No Solutions to LTC Crisis

September 20, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

DeadOn March 23, 2013 I blogged on the official demise of the CLASS Act LTC program.

The CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports) Act was supposed to create a voluntary, worker-paid long-term care (LTC) benefits program. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the CLASS Act program was actuarially sustainable. Of course, we in the long-term care insurance (LTCi) industry knew the CLASS Act was “deader than a doornail” for a long time, way before CLASS was enacted. This legislation just makes its demise official.

The formal repeal of the CLASS Act on January 1, 2013 included the establishment of a national commission on long-term care.

The committee was tasked with creating solutions for our nation’s looming long-term care crisis, which I’ve often blogged about.

On Thursday, September 12, 2013, the Commission submitted its recommendations, right on their deadline.

This Forbes Column by Howard Gleckman, on September 13, 2013, reports that Commission members were unable to come to consensus on adopting Commission recommendations, primarily because the committee was unable to broach the subject of LTC financing, which is obviously the crux of the problem.

Quoting from Mr. Gleckman, “Sources say there was never much chance the commission–operating with limited resources, deep partisan divisions, and a painfully short time-frame—could tackle the controversial financing issue. Instead, the report will do little more than identify the two prime alternatives—expanding private savings and insurance options or a creating a public social insurance program– without endorsing either.”

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: CLASS Act LTC, Honey Leveen, Howard Gleckman, Kathleen Sebelius, Long Term Care insurance, LTC Insurance, National Commission on Long-Term Care, www.honeyleveen.com

Horrible Stress That Could Have Been Avoided with Long-Term Care Insurance

September 9, 2013 by Honey Leave a Comment

Mom CaregivingOnce again, thank you, Dear Abby, for giving me additional blog fodder. In Sunday, September 9, 2013’s column, “Mom is caregiver, referee between husband, sons”, a tragic situation in which Mom is the primary caregiver is described. The husband is 99% bed-bound with multiple sclerosis, one son is bipolar and the other has Asperger’s. Both sons have behavioral problems that infuriate their bitter and angry father who tells them that he would hit them if he could. Needless to say, this verbal abuse just increases Mom’s stress.

What a horrible situation!! Imagine how much this family could have benefited from reasonably priced long-term care insurance! The policy would have provided funds to cover some if not all of the cost of a full-time caregiver for Dad and taken a huge load off Mom. Consequently, she could put more energy into caring for her sons.

Please note: the father described must be relatively young. While most long-term care claims come late in life, younger people often file claim on long-term care insurance policies. This is just one reason why it doesn’t make sense to wait to buy long-term care insurance.

I wish I could say that this situation is unusual, but since the odds of needing long-term care are nearly 70% for people over 65, I hear about comparable predicaments almost every day. And until the American public takes these odds seriously – and plans accordingly – we will all continue to read such stories or worse, find ourselves living a similar nightmare.

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Dear Abby, Honey Leveen, Long Term Care insurance, LTC Insurance, www.honeyleveen.com

Busting Another Ignorant Reporter

September 4, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Press CredentialsHere are some comments I made to correct an ignorant reporter for at www.Bloomberg.com

Click here for the article, which describes incapacity, then incorrectly describes how to prepare for incapacity financially. This compelled me to offer the following comments:

Setting a negative tone in the first paragraph describing long-term care insurance (LTCi) indicates the writers lack of research and insight into LTCi. The negative spin is unnecessary. Parts of the reporting are untrue. The negative “spin” truly does readers a disservice by discouraging them to plan responsibly for long-term care by thoughtfully researching LTCi (at more than the cursory level of Mr. Braham’s research). The “Goldilocks Group” makes no sense to me. We know statistically that twice as many of the affluent people described buy LTCi than do their less affluent counterparts. Choosing to fall back on Medicaid is a ridiculous notion for many reasons I will not state here due to time/space restrictions. I believe any “thinking” person who understands today’s economy, or has ever visited someone in a Medicaid-paid nursling home, even if they haven’t researched LTCi, knows why this is true. LTCi premiums can be made reasonable for nearly anyone willing to evaluate it with their eyes open.

Filed Under: Correcting Ignorant Public Figures Tagged With: Bloomberg.com, Honey Leveen, Long Term Care insurance, LTC Insurance, www.honeyleveen.com

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Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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