Archives for December 2014

How’s Your LTC IQ? Take a Fun Quiz

December 27, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

I hope you’ll enjoy taking the quiz below. I used it with great success at a talk I gave yesterday. I awarded a lottery scratch-off ticket to each person who gave a correct answer (I gave them printed copies of the article and told them where to find the answers). My students were quite engaged and seemed to enjoy it.

The questions below come from an October 28, 2014 US News and World Report article called, You’ll Likely Need Long-Term Care, But How Will You Pay for It? This article is great because it’s accurate, brief, straightforward, and well-researched. The article links its statements to the studies documenting them.

Long-Term Care (LTC) IQ QUIZ

1) What percentage of caregiving is done by unpaid family members and friends, including spouses, children and relatives?

2) What percentage of unpaid caregivers had to make financial sacrifices?

3) What is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US?

4) Nationwide, what percentage of LTC costs does Medicaid pay?

5) What percentage of Americans own LTC insurance?

6) What percentage of Americans are concerned about LTC costs?

7) What is the correct age to consider buying LTC insurance?

8) What is the annual cost of nursing home care?

Answers

1) 90%. I’ve done prior blogs on this.

2) 37%. I’ve done prior blogs on this.

3) Medical expenses which include LTC.

4) Two-thirds. See my blogs on Medicaid.

5) 15%. This is on the high side, other sources say closer to 11%. Bottom line: not enough of us!

6) 74% say they’d forego a cup of Starbucks a day to pay their LTC premiums. But they aren’t doing so!

7) In your 40’s. I’ve done prior blogs on why this is so.

8) $50,000/year. This is an average and is not for the accommodations you’d desire. Check out Genworth’s annual cost of care survey to find all care costs in your locale.

Denial Antidotes

December 22, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

The majority of us deny the fact that the odds we will need long-term care (LTC) are quite high (70% at age 65, according to www.longtermcare.gov). More importantly, we deny the potentially catastrophic consequences caused by needing LTC without being prepared.

Here are some denial-busting tools for the ones you care about, but who refuse to have a conversation about responsible, reasonable LTC planning now, while they are able to qualify for LTC insurance and find good rates.

Give your loved one this special, eight question LTC IQ Quiz.

Watch this brief video of Meryl Comer, graphically describing the havoc being unprepared for LTC caused:

www./resources will link you to other highly informative sites like My Life. My Family, The Motley Fool, and Own Your Future Texas.

Knowledge is power. Failure to plan is planning to fail.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

December 18, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

In my prior blog we learned about denial. The most common form of denial is implicatory denial. Here, the facts are not denied or re-interpreted, but instead the psychological, economic, political, physical or moral implications that conventionally follow from those facts are denied or ignored.

I see this with people’s refusal to plan responsibly for long-term care (LTC) all the time.

In other words, even though someone will accept the fact that at age of 65 and beyond, there’s a 70% chance that any of us will need long-term care, these deniers somehow have the inside track. People with implicatory denial are aware of these odds, but they refuse to believe this could happen to them. In other words, they’re psychic about this and can see the future. Everyone else will need LTC, but they (including their spouses) won’t.

An article in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times amused me. Its title is “Proved at last: Men really are idiots”. Of the 318 stunts that have qualified for Darwin Awards, 88.7% were done by men (Darwin Awards: awards for the stupidest, most dangerous, foolhardy stunts and activities). This correlates with what I see men doing about responsible LTC planning.

I’ve compared notes with many colleagues about this particular type of denial, and our experiences are similar. For some reason, women “get it” about the need for responsible LTC planning a lot more often than men. Most of the time, women instigate a conversation about LTC insurance with their husbands. Often, the husband puts the kibosh on the conversation. After all, he is psychic and has the inside track. He and his wife won’t need LTC. Everyone else will.

Denial is a Curious Beast

December 15, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Refusal to plan for long-term care and refusal to believe manmade activities are creating global warming are caused by the same thing. What a revelation to me! A book called Living in Denial, by Kari Marie Norgaard examines the causes of climate change denial.

Here’s an essay about Dr. Norgaard’s book. I love the fact that her book defines the three different types of denial:

Literal denial. This is the outright refusal to believe the facts and to dispute the consensus science, and even to deny the existence of a scientific consensus. Many so-called “climate skeptics” fit into this category.
Interpretive denial. This involves not disputing the underlying reality, but using euphemisms and framing to distort meaning. An example of this kind of denial might be the Government of Alberta claiming that it is improving emissions intensity (emissions per barrel) from the oil sands, while absolute emissions of CO2 are increasing rapidly due to growing bitumen production.
Implicatory denial. Here, the facts are not denied or re-interpreted, but instead “the psychological, political or moral implications that conventionally follow” from those facts are denied or ignored. Implicatory deniers accept the reality of human-caused climate change, but they live their lives as if the problem was little to do with them. This variety of denial is the main focus of the book. Most of us who live at a high standard of living in developed countries are guilty to some degree of implicatory denial.

These are exactly the same denial behaviors I see all the time!

For 25 years I’ve had well-educated, affluent friends and acquaintances who like, respect, and trust me, make excuses to not talk with me about reasonable, responsible long-term care planning. Intellectually, these people know better. They are making sound decisions in other areas of their lives, but they refuse to accept the fact that after age 65, they might be one of the 70% of us are going to need some sort of long-term care.

There’s little about denial that makes sense to me.

We Are In A Slow Cooker

December 12, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

This article from the October 31, 2014 New York Times confirms that the majority of Americans believe in global warming. Republicans are more likely to deny human-caused climate change than Democrats are. The New York Times article gives clear evidence of how and why Republicans just don’t want to discuss climate change, even though the public does want to see it addressed.

Even if Republicans were more willing to discuss climate change, the current political climate would probably prevent any affirmative climate change legislation from occurring.

The same lack of willingness to discuss climate change in Washington holds true for long-term care policy. I’ve written many blogs explaining why government (Medicaid)-paid long-term care is increasingly hazardous to families and our economy, yet nothing is being done about this in Washington.

If you want to ensure your dignity, options, and access to care and if you are among the 70% of us who will need long-term care after the age of 65, you better not depend on the government. Unless you are have absolutely no qualms about depleting your hard earned savings to pay for care that can cost upwards of $50,000/year, you better own reasonably priced long-term care insurance (LTCi).

Request a Free, No-Obligation LTCi Quote

Archives for December 2014

How’s Your LTC IQ? Take a Fun Quiz

Long-Term Care (LTC) IQ QUIZ

Answers

Denial Antidotes

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Denial is a Curious Beast

We Are In A Slow Cooker

From My Blog

Podcast Illuminates LTC Need

LTCI is Magical at Time of Need!

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