Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen | Houston, TX
Helping you make informed LTC decisions
No one researches and easily, clearly explains the need for responsible long-term care planning as well as The Motley Fool.
In their January 4, 2015, The Motley Fool explains why Medicare doesn’t/can’t/won’t pay for long-term care. They also advise people to prepare for long-term care costs ahead of time.
Motley Fool, I admire and love you! You do your readers — and the world — good, by explaining things succinctly, with great insight.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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).
"Honey - Whenever I need a clarification regarding our “LTC” you are “Johnny on the spot” responding in a very prompt manner, reassuring me, informing me in a concise way, patient with me as I massage the understanding in my own words. Your knowledge is current and expressed with confidence, offered in your conscientious and upbeat personality. 
It is a pleasure to work with you. Thank you for your expertise." ~ Nancy Damon, Houston, TX
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Here’s how to reach me:
Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP
“The Queen, by Self-Proclamation, of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCi)”
404 Royal Bonnet
Ft. Myers, FL 33908
Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177
Email: honey@honeyleveen.com
Email: honey@honeyleveen.com