Elephant in the Room Archives - Page 4 of 18 - Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

The High Cost of Illiteracy You Haven’t Thought About

March 18, 2019 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has a handy fact sheet all about “Health Literacy”, starting with a definition:

“Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

That ability to obtain — and understand — the necessary facts makes all the difference in how people choose to manage their health options.

The New York Times recently reported on the rising threat of health illiteracy in our country. And the numbers only get worse with age. In fact, only 3 percent of older adults qualify as having “proficient” health literacy.

Why Is It Harder For the Elderly?

There are a number of factors that contribute to the increase of health illiteracy in our aging population.

Complicated Information — Medical information is usually shared in technical, scientific language that can even confuse professionals.
Use of Jargon — Medical professionals sometimes fall back on industry jargon without explaining the meaning.
Stressful Conditions — When people are anxious, it’s even harder for them to make sense of the information being shared.
Cultural Differences — Sometimes there’s a language barrier that keeps people from fully understanding instructions. Even the most competent English speakers may not be able to follow the specifics of a prescription.
Cognitive Impairment — Declining brain function can have disastrous consequences when dosages are misunderstood or completely forgotten.

I’ve often blogged about age-related cognitive decline and it’s ill effects.

Too often, I see health illiteracy in clients I’ve known for many years. When we talk, I can tell they’re not the person I originally met. Instead, I hear fear, frailty and confusion. I worry for their ability to make safe choices for themselves.

One thing left out of the article is the decreasing access to family and community support. This is the elephant in the room. No amount of technology can replace the caring touch of another. I believe our increasingly isolated lifestyles are a major cause of loneliness, depression, fear, poor health outcomes, and health illiteracy. And it only gets worse as we age.

Our increasingly stressed medical system is doing it’s best to counteract the rise in health illiteracy, but this is an uphill battle. I’m not confident they’ll win.

Plan For Your Future Health Literacy

You can avoid health illiteracy well in advance. We are not going to regain our supportive communities from our grandparents’ generation. Make sure you have access to care and genuine concern when you need it. Plan for it and pay for it. Long term care planning in advance is essential.

To begin exploring your own options, click here to receive your free, no-obligation quote for long term care insurance coverage.

It’s National Long Term Care Awareness Month!

December 12, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

November is officially National Long Term Care Awareness Month (LTCAM). The US Congress created LTCAM in 2001, making this the 17th anniversary! Congress recognized the need to promote LTCAM as a month-long campaign aimed at educating Americans on the importance of owning Long Term Care insurance (LTCi).

Local, state and national governments recognize how unprepared citizens are. When it comes to being able to afford often catastrophically expensive long term care (LTC) costs, many of us are unprepared. Our government will not be able to adequately bear the costs of providing LTC. Long term care insurance costs are often a fraction of actual long term care costs.

How is Your Long Term Care Awareness?

Last year, Genworth Financial conducted a survey to see how informed Americans were on the costs, options and even the need for long term care. They found that only 1 in 5 respondents had taken any action in planning for their future medical needs.

They also found a lot of misunderstanding about who pays for for LTC costs, understanding the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, and a general lack of knowledge about what kind of costs are covered.

2 out of 3 respondents expect government programs to cover the costs of their LTC needs; however, 45% admitted that they didn’t know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid programs.
GenX is most concerned about paying for their medical expenses as they age. And yet, they are least likely to have a financial plan in place.
Millennials are most likely to have made proactive plans for their future. The research suggests that they have the lowest expectations of the government being able to pay, so they have taken action to protect themselves.

Here is a first-hand testimonial of someone who didn’t think she needed Long Term Care insurance, kept an open mind and bought the policy.

Knowledge is Power

The purpose of Long Term Care Awareness Month is to raise your awareness of the need to plan responsibly for LTC, right now! This is the very best way to ensure dignity, options, access and choices if LTC is necessary.

Unfortunately, the odds of needing LTC are high. You protect against other risks, like a car accident or house fire. The need for LTC is more likely than a house fire or car accident. LTC often costs more than a car or a house. If you’re not prepared, a lengthy LTC need puts your savings and retirement, and family at risk.

Just as it is smart to plan ahead for retirement, it’s smart to plan now for long-term care.

Take that first step. Click here to receive your free, no-obligation quote for your own Long Term Care insurance coverage.

Why We Avoid the Hard Stuff: The Ostrich Paradox

October 17, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

ostrich burying head in sand ignoring problems

We fail to evacuate when advised and then we rebuild in flood zones. Helmets aren’t worn. We avoid the risk of “crying wolf” instead of sounding the alarm. In the face of certain disaster, many of us avoid the hard choices and bury our heads in the sand like the fabled ostrich. [BTW, that’s totally a myth.]

We also go to great lengths to avoid talking about long term care planning. Of the millions of Americans who qualify (by age and income criteria), only about 10% actually own long term care insurance (LTCi).

In his recent Forbes column (Sept 2018), Howard Gleckman reported on this avoidance behavior. He wrote,

“Americans are unable to plan for a catastrophe, even one we know is coming. Our brains cannot, for some reason, process this. Thus, in the face of an approaching calamity many of us…do nothing.”

There’s a Storm Coming

The residents along the Carolina coastline, for example, were given multiple warnings to evacuate before the arrival of Hurricane Florence. Despite the mandatory evacuation orders, many people chose to ignore the oncoming danger and stayed in their homes.

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, suffered from pancreatic cancer for years. Despite her worsening condition, she never made a will, leaving her $80 million estate vulnerable to hefty taxes before her children receive any inheritance. All because she never faced the need for advanced planning.

When We Avoid Information

“A person should never avoid information, because information can never hurt a decision”, states economist Joshua Tasoff. And yet, we go to great lengths to do just this. Listen to why in this wonderful Hidden Brain podcast.

Denial defies logic. Because it’s strictly emotional.

Mr. Gleckman refers to a book called “The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters“, by Robert J Meyer.

From this book and Mr. Gleckman’s column, here are some reasonable explanations of why we often behave irrationally in the face of coming disaster:

Excessive optimism: They know the storm is coming and still believe that, magically, they will be unharmed. They see an aging population getting older and more frail and still believe that their own experience will somehow be different.

Herd thinking: Nobody else is preparing, so why should I? Saving isn’t sexy. Let’s plan our next exotic vacation!

Myopia: It’s easier to focus on our short term needs and desires. Planning for the long term might require sacrificing our current wants and channeling that money into some prudent investments. That’s inconvenient. (Oh, the stories I could tell you about this one.)

Amnesia: Our minds can block bad memories. We downplay how bad that last storm was. And we forget how hard it was watching our parents get all the care they needed in their later years.

Inertia and simplification: We’ve all experienced “Analysis Paralysis”. Faced with complicated matters, we freeze up and end up making no choice. Unfortunately, the long term care industry is also part of this problems. Policies can be difficult to understand. It’s easier to shove them into the desk drawer, unread and unsigned.

Not even the ostrich buries its head in the sand. Why should you? When you are ready to start taking some proactive steps for your future, click here. You will receive a no-obligation quote on your own Long Term Care insurance plan.

Denial of the Facts Does Not Make Them Less True

October 10, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Resistance to planning for long term care and doubting that human activities have created global warming share some very interesting roots. What a revelation to me! Author Karie Marie Norgaard connected these dots in her book, Living in Denial.

In the book, Norgaard examines the thought processes behind those who choose to deny the existence of climate change. I read an essay by Andy Skuce in which he takes a deep dive into Norgaard’s research and understanding about Denial.

Types of Denial

The book divides denial into 3 categories:

Literal denial. This happens when people don’t trust the facts, even when overwhelmingly supported by objective and thorough scientific data. We often see this from “Climate Skeptics”.
Interpretive denial. This one gets slippery. It accepts the facts (climate change is real), but reinterprets the meaning so it doesn’t sound like a real threat. That removes their responsibility to make proactive changes, since it’s not a real problem.
Implicatory denial. In this case, the facts and the interpretations are generally accepted. But then, “the psychological, political or moral implications that conventionally follow” are discounted and ignored. Climate change is already too advanced for anyone to do anything about it, so I’m off the hook and don’t have to make hard choices.

Denying the Need for Long Term Care

If these thought processes sound familiar, these are exactly the same behaviors I’ve been writing about throughout my career as a Long Term Care Insurance Specialist. Let’s run through these again:

Literal denial. Not trusting the facts — No matter how many studies get funded, no matter how may reports get written. There are always going to be people who refuse to accept that they are probably going to need financial help to cover their future medical care.
Interpretive denial. Accepting the facts: Yes, we’re living longer. Yes, we’ll probably need help in our later years. BUT… we’ve always taken care of each other. Or our family is ready to step in to help. We’ll be fine.
Implicatory denial. I know, we’ve got some uncertain times ahead of us. BUT… ‘they’ say that there’s no real reliable coverage. Or it costs too much. What can I do at this point?

For almost 30 years I’ve had well-educated, affluent friends and acquaintances make excuses to avoid the conversation 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.

Denial is not a river in Egypt and the first step is easy. Click here to receive your no-obligation quote on your own Long Term Care insurance plan.

It’s How You Say It

July 9, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

“It’s not what you say but how you say it.” This quote (or some version of it) is one of the many gems of Mae West. We love it because it’s true! We may have the most important, critical information to share. But if you can’t communicate, what’s the use? It’s like yelling down a well.

Margie Barrie, a long-time friend and colleague, writes on a variety of topics concerning long term care insurance (LTCi). Her latest article in ThinkAdvisor (June 2018) highlights the importance of the language we use when addressing topics that are hard to hear.

She has a gift for finding the right words to get our attention.

This is How You Say It

Margie lists some pointed questions and terms that truly draw peoples’ attention to the urgent need for long term care planning.

Here are some of my favorites, excerpted from her article:

What’s your plan for when you get a little older and a little sicker and you need help to put on your shoes and pants and get breakfast? (The imagery makes it very real.)
One day you are not going to be as healthy and good looking as you are today. (Suggested by Gene Cutler).
70-70-70: 70 million people are turning 70, and 70% will need long-term care.
What have you allocated in your retirement portfolio for long term care? (Until you have planned for long term care expenses, you have allocated everything for long term care expenses.)
If one of you has an extended health care need, which of your assets would you liquidate first?
This plan is not designed to make you rich. It is designed to keep you from being poor.
Put a wall of protection around your portfolio.
Wealth protection tool.
Having a plan in place gives you a map to follow.
Say when your health changes, instead of if. (Suggested by Linda Jobin).
Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Dr. Wade Pfau likes to used the term “Spending Shock” to describe the devastating emotional and financial effect from an unforeseen, expensive long term care event. He often writes how it “… can wreak unnecessary, avoidable financial, mental and physical havoc on families and estates.”

Do any of these points speak to you? Do they get you thinking about your plans? If so, take the first step: Click here to receive your no-obligation quote for your personal LTCi policy.

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