Long-Term Care Awareness Month Archives - Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

November is National Long Term Care Awareness Month

November 5, 2019 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

November is upon us which means… It’s Long Term Care Awareness Month! And time for my annual awareness-raising post. Just kidding! Most of my posts are about raising awareness. 😉

This isn’t just another “Hallmark Holiday”. Long Term Care Awareness Month was created by Congress in 2001. They recognize how important it is to bring this topic into the American conversation. Since then, several governors and mayors have also joined the campaign to highlight this important information campaign.

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.

Measuring Long Term Care Awareness

In 2017, Genworth Financial conducted a survey to see how informed Americans were on the costs, options and even the need for long term care. Participants in the survey shared that their greatest fear about aging was “not having enough money to pay for long term care.” Despite this fear (or maybe because of it? See past blog, “Indecision Paralysis“), only one in five of the respondents had any plan in place to pay for those future medical costs.

The survey found that at least part of this lack of planning is due to misunderstanding what kind of costs could be in their future and which of those costs would be covered by government programs.

“Two out of three adults expect government programs to partially or fully cover the costs of their long term care services, despite the fact that Medicare pays for only limited care and Medicaid has strict financial eligibility requirements. In addition, both programs have come under increasing funding pressure.”

When it came to the purpose of long term care insurance (LTCi):

62% did not understand what LTCi covers
61% didn’t know that LTCi can, among other benefits, help create personalized care plans and locate quality care providers

November is Perfect Timing

Many families spend more time together this time of year. This is a great time to start asking questions and exploring your options together. After all, the decisions you make today will affect your entire family in the future.

Genworth has a wonderful resource to guide family members through this unfamiliar territory. Their “Conversation Starters” can help you navigate though uncomfortable topics like wills, power of attorney, and health care directives. There’s also questions about lifestyle and preferences for medical care options.

November is the perfect month to protect you and your loved ones by building a financial plan. Proper planning can help you access the care you’ll need and will make the quality of life you envision a real possibility.

Click here to receive a free, no-obligation quote for your own LTCi policy.

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.

Can’t the Government Pay For This?

April 23, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

There is a growing trend in the United States. More and more Americans now want the government pay for programs that meet our daily needs. Does this surprise you? It sure isn’t what I expected to find.

For years, the rallying cry has been for smaller government. In fact, this recent shift marks the first time in 8 years that a majority of Americans now favor an increase in government participation. A report from the Pew Research Center found that most Americans think the government is doing too little to help young people, the elderly, the middle class and the poor.

This new trend was also reported by William A. Galston’s article (WSJ, “Americans Want Big Government“):

“In the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last month, 58% of Americans—the highest share ever recorded—agreed that ‘government should do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of people,’ compared to only 38% who thought that ‘government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.”

Galston also cited a Kaiser survey that reports an interest in increased spending on defense and education.

As early as 2017, a separate Pew survey found broad support across both Republicans and Democrats for increased spending on veterans’ benefits, infrastructure, scientific research, environmental protection and assistance to the needy.

Can the Government Pay for Programs?

Not this government. Not today. “The federal deficit is big and getting bigger… Its balance sheet reveals that the public debt will reach $15.7 trillion by October.” And these numbers don’t include “unfunded liabilities, reported by the Social Security and Medicare Trustees, that are four times the current public debt.” (John F. Cogan, WSJ, “Why America is Going Broke.“)

So, if you’re counting on Medicaid…

I’ve written a number of articles urging you to become more self-reliant when planning for your future. Our nation’s financial uncertainty does not have to limit your access to quality care. You just need to do a little planning today.

The first step is to click here to receive your personal quote for Long Term Care Insurance.

Caregiving for Elders, Not Children, Denies Women Paychecks

December 29, 2017 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

For decades, we’ve heard how women in the workplace were unable to keep pace with their male colleagues. We thought this was partly due to the demands of maternity leave and ongoing parenting responsibilities. Why then, when children left the home, did this pattern seem to continue into the later years of these career women? Enter the “elder-care crisis”, as described in a recent New York Times article.

The author addresses the rising trend of women shifting from child care to elder-care. Because many our aging Americans are unable to care for themselves, their care often falls to their wives and daughters. This results in reduced hours at work, lower paychecks and sometimes leaving their jobs altogether.

In case you’ve missed the statistics:

25% of women aged 45 – 64 are caring for an older relative
14% of women aged 35-55 are caring for an older relative
10% of these women have reduced time at their paying jobs
6% of these women quit their jobs

You can read more about the research here and here.

Who Provides the Care for our Elderly Family Members?

A graph in the NYT article dramatically illustrates that after rising for half a century, the labor force participation rate among prime-age women began to decline sharply in the early 2000’s – right around the time the time the elderly share of the population began to rise sharply.

It’s not a stretch to connect the dots. About 14 million older Americans currently can’t live independently and care for themselves. Unless they’ve purchased long term care insurance (LTCi), the burden of care weighs predominantly on their wives and daughters.

In his book “Who Will Care for Us?” Paul Osterman estimates that there are about 21 million family members caring for an adult relative for no pay. By 2040, he predicts demand for such care will rise to 34 million.

There are a variety of costs associated with caregiving tasks, from financial to emotional. This is one image provided by Merrill Lynch:

You can click here to find additional easy-to-read images.

Unlike the Boomers currently caring for their parents, their millennial children will not have as many siblings to help them care for their parents. Future elderly will also live longer, suggesting that there will be a lot of caregivers well into their 50’s juggling work with caring for children and parents.

The New York Times article ends on an unfortunate note, concluding that “private insurers are not the solution.” If you’ve been following me for any time at all, you know I am strongly in favor of using private insurance as a successful solution. In fact… I’ll take a deeper dive into this in a future blog post.

In the meantime, if you’d like to proactively prepare for the likelihood of needing some form of elder-care, please click here to receive your free LTCi quote.

Women Do Their Best to Bridge Long-Term Care Chasm

February 1, 2017 by Honey 2 Comments

This past week we saw two articles about the impending long-term care crisis.

The first was in the January 25, 2017 New York Times titled, “Why Women Quit Working: It’s Not for the Reasons Men Do“. In the US, job qualified, many competent women are dropping out of the US workforce to become caregivers. The rates are higher than in any other first world country. “This “care chasm” would seem to explain the stark contrast between working women in the United States and in other advanced industrialized countries with comprehensive family support policies. In most European nations, for example, women’s labor force participation has increased significantly since 2000 instead of faltering.”

I’ve done prior blogs about why our long-term care payment system creates a cycle poverty. These blogs tie in well with the second article.

The second article appeared in the January 28, 2017 Houston Chronicle. It’s titled There’s A Huge imbalance in How Texas Provides for its Old People. This article profiles the unusual, disproportionately Hispanic, low income citizens of Brownsville, TX.

Being a caregiver in Brownsville is a very common job. Brownsville is unique in this regard. If you don’t live in Brownsville, however, you are less likely to find reasonable, high caliber caregivers unless you can afford to pay adequately for your long-term care.

Is long-term care insurance (LTCi) worth it? Does long-term care insurance pay for home care, assisted living, adult day care and nursing homes? Yes. Anyone interested in LTCi rates should contact me. I will be happy to quote long-term care insurance rates at no obligation.

Request a Free, No-Obligation LTCi Quote