Honey Leveen, Author at Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

Mainstream Media Ignores the Elephant in the Room Again

January 13, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

I was momentarily excited when I read the following headline, “The World Braces for Retirement Crisis” on an AP article published December 30, 2013. I optimistically expected a story that would at the very least mention the possibility that catastrophic medical and long-term care costs would be part of the coming retirement crisis. No such luck.

Once again, I was disappointed (but not entirely surprised). The article only reported on shrinking, no longer existing retirement and pension plans that will force people to have to work longer. It didn’t make even a tiny, tangential connection between shrinking pensions, longer work lives, and how much these factors will exacerbate the existing high odds and costs of needing long-term care.

As I have reported in this blog time and time again, mainstream media usually fails to address this 5,000 pound elephant in the room: the impending Silver Tsunami of Baby Boomers in first-world countries throughout the globe, who will have long-term care expenses that they are pitifully unprepared for (see the italicized footnote below).

It’s very frustrating. The public tries at every opportunity to deny the compelling, high odds they might need long-term care. Mainstream media too often aids and abets these efforts, as this article does.

“Congressional Budget Office, 11/07 [https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/11-13-lt-health.pdf] *Total spending on health care would rise from 16% of gross domestic product today to consume nearly half of the GDP in 75 years. * Federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid would rise from 4% of GDP today to 19% in 2082. This new study shows significantly higher federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid under current law than other official projections do, which typically assume that spending grows much more slowly in the future than it has in the past. Although projections by CBO and by the Medicare trustees track each other relatively closely for the next two or three decades, by the end of 75 years, Medicare spending under CBO’s projections is about 50% higher. The study concludes that, without changes in federal law, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid is on a path that cannot be sustained.” Source: Galen Institute, “Health Policy Matters” e-newsletter (11/16/7). Find in sources at: CBO on Health Spending Outlook 1107. URL: https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/11-13-lt-health.pdf

I Am Scared about the Fate of Nursing Homes

January 6, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

It’s the end of the year, and I’m pelted with solicitations to donate to various charities. I feel bad enough having to make the visceral decision to toss most of the requests into the trash, even though I support just about all of the soliciting charities. I feel especially bad about the fate of one charity in particular: Seven Acres.

I gave a larger than average end-of-year donation to Seven Acres, the Jewish nursing home here in Houston. It has a reputation of being top notch. When I call Seven Acres top notch, I mean that only in relative terms. It is as top notch as possible for a Medicaid-accepting, money-losing nursing facility. I have heard from friends with loved ones at Seven Acres that there are too few caregivers so loved ones often wait a long time for help to come. Seven Acres staff strongly encourages families to hire their own, privately paid, additional caregiver.

Here are just a few of the blogs I’ve done on the unsustainable state of long-term care (LTC) finance in the US: /?s=nursing+home. Because Medicaid pays less than it actually costs to provide care, most facilities run in the red. This causes them to cut corners on the quantity and therefore, the quality of care they can provide.

In its annual solicitation letter, Seven Acres states that in 2013, it “provided over $8 million in charitable care to over 85% of its resident population who rely solely on inadequate Medicaid funding.”

I feel bad knowing that my donation is a drop in the bucket and will not help with Seven Acres’ over all financial problems. Increased demand will cause Seven Acres to continue to run in the red, in what may be a downward spiral. My donation will have no effect on making the changes, and reform, that will be necessary to preserve Medicaid-paid long-term care for our most vulnerable citizens. It will also have no effect on making political changes that are necessary to gain control over our country’s out-of-control Medicaid expenses.

The moral: take charge of your own future dignity and choices with a reasonably priced LTC insurance policy.

Veterans’ Admin Helps Pay for LTC

January 3, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

A December 23, 2013 New York Times article titled, “Winning Veterans’ Trust, and Profiting From It” describes a program that’s a darling to many trade contacts I have here in Houston in the long-term care industry because it helps fill vacant assisted-living apartments and nursing-home beds.

The program pays benefits that may be worth more than $20K/year per person from the Veterans Administration Aid and Attendance program. To qualify, you must have a low income, you or your spouse must be a World War II veteran, and there must be a need for long-term care.

One’s income may be naturally low, or made “artificially” low. I know a colleague who helps people qualify for this Veterans’ program. He works for one of the companies mentioned in the article. He makes most of his living offering free assistance with the VA Aid and Attendance program application process. To get applicants’ incomes low enough to qualify for the program, he can sell annuities that are exempt from inclusion in the qualification process, thereby enabling his client to qualify for VA Aid and Attendance benefits.

Quoting from the article, “For the advisers and retirement homes, the attractions are clear. The V.A. program paid $5.1 billion to 514,000 veterans or their survivors this year, up from $3.4 billion in 2007, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The number of veterans or their spouses receiving the aid and attendance benefits, the stipend for assisted living, has surged by 30 percent — leaping to 206,000 in 2012, from 158,000 in 2006.”

According to the article, qualifying for the VA Aid and Attendance program is not very difficult. Checking and monitoring for appropriate applications is lax (in other words, the VA is understaffed; we already knew this).

This is another example of bureaucratic ineptitude and economically unsustainable legalized theft.

It’s unwise to expect our government to be able to pay for your long-term care.

New Study Shines Light on Family Long-Term Care Providers

December 30, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

A new study by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the United Hospital Fund reports on just how much care, and what type of care employed family members (unpaid caregivers) provide. The findings are alarming. They show that despite their workplace obligations, nearly half of all employed family caregivers perform many of the tasks we normally associated with licensed health care professionals, including a range of medical/nursing tasks, such as medication management, wound care, using meters and monitors, and more.

An earlier report by the same authors found that nearly half of family caregivers (working and non-working, combined) nationally performed such medical and nursing tasks. This new report shows that family caregivers who also work, perform medical/nursing tasks at about the same rate non-working family caregivers do.

These findings surprised the researchers, who expected more of a difference between the extent to which employed and not-employed caregivers perform medical/nursing tasks.

The report also examines the characteristics and stress levels of working versus unemployed family caregivers. No surprise here: employed caregivers have more stress.

Much of the stress family caregivers face would be alleviated with the presence of long-term care insurance.

It’s Always Best to Move Ahead of Life Events

December 27, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

A long-time client, Carolyn Bowden, has been kind enough to share her thoughts about why she and her husband chose to downsize from a larger home to a significantly smaller rented apartment while they were both still very independent.

I strongly feel it’s far better to honestly consider and realistically prepare for possible health adversities far in advance. Life is more enjoyable this way. Buying long-term care insurance is an important part of doing this, and so is preemptively downsizing, as the Bowdens have done.

Carolyn told me that she and her husband made this move not only for themselves, but also for their entire family.

I admire Carolyn for making this considerate, preemptive move and am grateful to her for offering the share her experience with my readers.

What follows is a quote from the recent column she wrote.

“My husband and I moved in November 2013 to a Senior “Independent” Living Residence for adults (only) over the age of 50. Our 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment is just 1026 square feet with a balcony. This meant we could only take with us 1/4th of the contents of our home. We do have a small, 3 by 8 foot storage room outside our apartment, and we selected to park our car in a car port instead of one of the small garages. Our apartment is on the top floor, at the rear of the building on the north side.

The month before our move, I would walk our house and “grieve” over what I was leaving behind. Our new home has amenities, such as, granite counter tops, an attached garage and a beautiful view of the adjacent park behind our home. We lost items like our sterling, Lenox china and crystal, which were sold in an estate sale, along with family treasures going back over 200 years. The children have their own “treasures”. I consoled myself by envisioning what had been mine, would now be in “new” homes and my hope was that they would be appreciated and enjoyed.

I am excited with the intimate apartment and have discovered how much easier it is to maintain. Our is more carefree now. In some ways, we have fewer decisions. For example, I only have one set of tongs, 3 sauce pans, and 3 skillets, etc. It is like living in a small cottage, except that I do not have the white picket fence with climbing roses.

We are renting now. How nice it is to just pick up the phone or email when maintenance and repairs are needed! We bear no unexpected expenses. There’s no need to wait for repairmen to arrive. There is no expiration of service warranties to deal with. I am so very happy!

However, my husband is not as comfortable with the changes. He misses his recliner, his view of the park where there was always something of interest to see. He can no longer open the door to venture outside and check out the yard and trees. But, he is trying. He is pleased with no longer having major home repairs and expensive maintenance of the yard.

It is my thought that this time next year he will be more adapted. Thoughts of what we left behind will be just memories. We will be busy moving ahead.”

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Mainstream Media Ignores the Elephant in the Room Again

I Am Scared about the Fate of Nursing Homes

Veterans’ Admin Helps Pay for LTC

New Study Shines Light on Family Long-Term Care Providers

It’s Always Best to Move Ahead of Life Events

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