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Partnership Smartnership

June 15, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

Many of my colleagues are on the LTC (Long-term Care) Partnership bandwagon, to the extent that they almost worship these policies or at least place undue emphasis on their value.

Here’s a typical article touting the alleged magic of LTC Partnership plans. (Go Articles.com, submitted on June 7, 2011 by Shevon Miller)

And here’s the email I sent to its author:

“Only one glaring problem with this. No one in their right mind would willingly elect to receive Medicaid-paid long-term care. Would you? I bet your own LTCi (Long-term Care Insurance) policy has a longer benefit period and is designed to avoid Medicaid.

Partnership plans are best suited for low-income earner policies sold in the workplace. They are inappropriate for the typical middle-class or affluent individual LTCi purchaser.”

Most, if not all, LTCi sales are based on dignity, options and choices, which owning LTCi provides. Medicaid-paid care provides none of this. Medicaid-paid LTC is currently abysmal in quality and under constant threat of budget cuts. What will happen when Boomers start wanting to access Medicaid-paid care in droves? This will not look pretty. It is a scene my clients and I will avoid by using our properly designed LTCi policies, with longer benefit periods.

Ron, another great column!

June 2, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

Thanks to my friend and colleague, Ron Hagelman, for another great column, featured in the May 2011 edition of Broker’s World.

Ron, a noted national long-term care insurance (LTCi) expert, is as concerned about the public’s denial of possible LTC needs as I am. He sees the same things I do and is just as frustrated. His sense of humor is better than mine, however.

Here’s Ron’s piece, called “Faulty Wiring”. It uses the analogy of faulty wiring to describe the public’s disconnect when it comes to responsible long-term care planning.

I saw my hairdresser today. She’s a cancer survivor who’s insurable. Last month she told me she was squeezed and could not afford LTCi: no way, no how. Today she told me she would be gone three weeks. She’s traveling to Italy. She can afford Italy, but not $100/month for LTCi premiums. This type of denial is what Ron and I face daily. We are both highly concerned because we’ve seen how well things turn out for people who need care and own LTCi. We see how sad the situation often is for people who don’t own LTCi.

Health Care Reform Could Hit Nursing Homes Hard

May 31, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

In his May 16, 2011 article titled, Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions from Health Law“, New York Times reporter Robert Pear draws attention to the bleak outlook for Medicaid-paid long-term care (LTC).

Currently, Medicaid covers about two-thirds of nursing home residents. Since many Boomers will soon need long-term care services in a giant bulge, the result will be a “Silver Tsunami.” Unfortunately, very few Boomers have planned for this eventuality.

States set Medicaid rates, and many states, facing severe budget problems, have already reduced payments for nursing homes, which are also facing severe budget problems.

And now a further threat for this beleaguered system. Starting in 2014, health-care reform will require employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer affordable coverage or risk paying a penalty. For a mid-size nursing home, that penalty could easily exceed $200,000 a year. Faced with increasing budget shortfalls, nursing home executives are urging Congress and the Obama administration to spare them from the penalties.

25% of nursing home workers do not own health insurance. These employees are often on the lowest end of the wage scale.

The future is not looking too rosy for nursing homes and the frail, defenseless people they serve.

With minor exceptions, Medicaid pays for long-term care only in certain nursing homes. I believe many seniors who are currently receiving LTC in these nursing homes could experience a higher quality of life in assisted living facilities, but they simply cannot afford this type of care. Why? Because they failed to have a conversation about LTC planning while they were insurable and able to buy affordable LTCi. So they face the bleak reality of spending their final years in Medicaid-paid nursing homes.

Since the vast majority of Boomers have not planned for their LTC, what quality of care will be available to them when the Silver Tsumani overwhelms the available, underfunded nursing homes? Will Medicaid funding be adequate to provide the increased demand for LTC?

In view of this bleak future they are facing, the most baffling question is: why do Boomers continue to avoid having a conversation about responsible LTC planning?

Media Getting it Right

May 10, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

In the 20+ years I’ve been working with long-term care insurance (LTCi), I’ve been waiting patiently for the media to stop slamming LTCi so that the public could be better informed. Could it be that the media is finally getting it straight about how essential LTCi is? When I see accurate, factual articles with no trace of foul, negative spin, I am heartened!

Thank you to Constance Gustke of www.CNBC.com for taking the time research and honor her profession as a journalist. Here’s her article, titled, “Long-Term Care Comes of Age”. There is no emotional spin in this article because it is written by a good journalist. It contains a lot of solid, useful facts and information. I encourage all of my readers to read Ms. Gustke’s piece and forward it to those you care about, who still avoid conversing about responsible long-term care planning.

What Ms. Gustke is doing correctly, and what an embarrassing number of her peers don’t, is relate information factually, with no tinge of emotion.

The contrast between Ms. Gustke’s example of good journalism and junk, shoddy journalism is very obvious when you compare this piece to the one I commented on by Katy Read in the Star Tribune, April 13, 2011. Click here for my blog about this piece.

Ms. Read has her facts correct, but why was she compelled to frame LTCi negatively? The first paragraph of this piece states LTCi is expensive. She mentions LTCi’s expensiveness an additional time in her short piece. Why? To sell press? Short deadline? I have no idea. I do know that this is very harmful to the readers Ms. Read seeks to inform. The negative spin of this article is possibly just the excuse her readers need to continue their procrastination of responsible long-term care planning.

It’s also incorrect information. The truth is that LTCi is an absolute bargain when you factor in how probable it is that any of us will need care, along with the often catastrophic costs of care. Ms. Read alludes to this, but I think most readers will miss this information due to being more absorbed by her negative spin.

Make a Gift of Long-term Care Insurance

May 6, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

Mothers spend their lives worrying about you – and they never stop. But as mothers grow older, they have another worry: becoming a burden to their children.

With Mother’s Day approaching, why not purchase long-term care insurance (LTCi) for your parents? There’s not a more appropriate, caring, considerate gift. Siblings can chip in and wind up with very, very low premiums.

LTCi is the gift that ensures dignity, options, choices and access if care is needed. LTCi greatly contributes to keeping families united and stress-free. Since LTCi provides the money to access the most desirable care options, LTCi policyholders often access the right kind of care, sooner than their people with no LTCi.

Without LTCi, families often experience great stress, panic and overwhelming expenses because they are forced to react after a health event triggers a care need. These families are not prepared, and family members can be at odds with each other about the best course of action. Sadly, this discord can carry forward to become mom or dad’s undesired legacy. How I wish I hadn’t seen so many completely avoidable instances where this happened!

If you are still mired in a state of denial about why more and more people understand that LTCi is an absolute necessity, please contact me.

I want to thank nationally syndicated columnist Terry Savage, whose May 4, 2009 article in the Chicago Sun-Times inspired me to post this blog again this year. Terry wrote a wonderful and powerful piece about giving long-term care insurance for Mother’s Day.

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Partnership Smartnership

Ron, another great column!

Health Care Reform Could Hit Nursing Homes Hard

Media Getting it Right

Make a Gift of Long-term Care Insurance

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