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Same Old Story

February 2, 2021 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Just a few months ago Al was enjoying his wife, family and traveling. An acute health event occurred – an aneurism, I think. Now Al will need a tremendous amount of long-term care, for a long time. His family was unprepared for this.

While the circumstances are not that unusual, this particular story hit me hard. Al is my age, only about 68; he was my high school classmate.

This couple had successful careers and saved for retirement. They were constructive, active, engaged, intelligent, business-literate people. But they didn’t prepare properly for long-term care (LTC). If their situation is like most I encounter, an ethical and wise professional, like me, probably knocked on their door many years ago asking to introduce them to how LTC insurance works. They decided they didn’t need LTC insurance and were comfortable enough to self-insure for LTC. After all, they probably wouldn’t need it.

They are now stoically in reactive mode, cobbling together Al’s plan of care, under duress. I bet they do have the money to self-insure for Al’s LTC but they’re reluctant to use it, especially because Al’s need for care could last decades.

Al may need round the clock care. If they had LTC in place, it would pay enough to at least offer respite, possibly changing the wife’s caregiver role enough so that she had opportunity to enjoy her husband’s company.

The following is his wife’s post, the names have been changed:

“Al was transferred to *** **** Lab on 1/18 and it took several more days to wait for Covid results. By the time I finally saw Al, 6 weeks had gone by since I called 911. The family had daily FaceTime conferences with Al while he was in the ICU, but nothing could have prepared me for how lethargic he appeared. Al did remember me, but correct orientation was so limited. I went into a panic mode when a few days later, I was informed that Al’s discharge date to our home would be on 2/11 and that he would require 24 hour supervision for safety, home health and a nurses aide. My mind worked overtime trying to get answers and accommodate our home while planning to keep Al safe. It was much easier to spend whole days at Al’s bedside. Our time together was just as sweet and tender as could be.
THEN, during the second week of rehab, Al started to wake up! He had more periods of lucid wakefulness. His eyes were open and he could hold his head up. Many of his positive, adorable attributes started to emerge, including wanting to wear the “executive director” hat when working with a young speech pathologist. He has such a strong intellect! Al is learning to motor plan for getting from in/out of a chair/bed and using a walker 300 ft with 2 rest breaks and physical assistance. His appetite is getting better and he can feed himself, brush his teeth and use an electric razor, with supervision to stay on task.
I’m being truthful to all of you so that there are no misunderstandings or hopeful inflations of what Al can and cannot do at this time. Al is making progress every day and it may take a year or more. Currently, Al has a limited understanding of his struggles and concrete orientation to time and place continues to be a challenge. He is trying to fill in the blanks of his memory files and it is our responsibility to ensure that he files the correct information. I discovered that this is why watching tv is not helpful!
Discharge planning is underway and all home equipment will be ordered. ***, ***, ***** and I did a complete Do it yourself makeover of Al’s ground floor home office. This room is accessible and a place where we will be living for however long it takes. We are lucky that we planned this addition with a ramp and French doors. In addition, there is an attached efficiency kitchen and full bathroom.
I help the nurses and therapists with Al’s care. I am lucky that patient care and rehab are the foundation of my OT career. This part does not intimidate me at all. While Al is at home, we will set up a daily schedule with music, current events for time and place, self help, seated cooking, games with grandkids, etc. Home will be a good place for continued recovery.
Before we left on our trip, we were in the process of joining ALL of our accounts and passwords. We ran out of time and did not complete this task, which was a big and costly mistake. Now that Al is not able to manage those accounts, I’m am locked out and and I had to obtain legal representation. My advice to friends and family, handle your affairs. Wrap it up in a bow for your trusted partner, family member or friend.
Thank you for all of the continued notes of love and concern. Al’s group of Brother/friends and wives/partners are a lifeline. I plan to lean on them once they get their covid shots. For all others offering help, that time will come when I may ask you.
Bye for now,”

Filed Under: I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC, Uncategorized Tagged With: Excuses For Not Buying LTCi, home health care, Information About LTC

State of the LTCi Industry – 2018 Update

April 7, 2018 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

LTCi Converence 2018
I spoke on a well-attended panel on branding. Clockwise from upper left: me, Denise Lott, Marilee Driscoll, Betty Doll.

I’ve just returned from the largest long term care insurance (LTCi) conference in the world and my head is still spinning! I got to experience so many fantastic speakers and participate in some great conversations. Throughout the week, I mingled with about 1,000 actuaries, claims people, insurance regulators, top management and marketing colleagues. One of the highlights of my year, it is always invigorating to spend time with these professionals in the LTCi industry.

The LTCi Industry is Alive and Kicking!

I am happy to report that the LTC insurance industry is alive & kicking and in solid financial condition. New asset-based LTC products have given the industry an additional boost. Known as “combo” or “hybrid products, these solutions are helping more and more people find ways to protect their future.

What has not changed over the years is the #1 reason people postpone or even avoid purchasing this important coverage. They just don’t believe that they’re going to need professional medical care in their later years. They convince themselves that the government will pay for it if they do. The media often portrays LTC insurance in an undeserved negative light. If an article describes a family’s tale of hardship, the fact that their LTCi coverage actually helped gets buried. LTC is truly the Rodney Dangerfield of insurance!

The need to protect ourselves from the high risk and high costs associated with LTC is not going away. In fact, the need is growing as the Boomers age.  For most of us, there is still no better way to fund long term care than with insurance. Fortunately, the LTCi industry remains committed to offering excellent policies at reasonable cost.

There is still no substitute for the dignity, choices and access only LTC protection provides!

Is LTC insurance the right choice for you? Click here to receive your personal quote for Long Term Care coverage.

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC Tagged With: Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC

Who Buys Long Term Care Insurance?

November 8, 2017 by Honey Leave a Comment

 

A report by AHIP and Lifeplans, two highly reputable entities, came out at the beginning of 2017 that studied which consumers chose to purchase long term care insurance (LTCi) over the last 25 years. They wanted to determine “Who Buys Long Term Care Insurance” and what has changed in the marketplace over time.

They looked at purchasing trends, attitudes around the need for long term care, the perceived role of the federal government, family responsibility and protecting a legacy. One thing is certain: the need for long term care is being more widely recognized.

This report has a ton of valuable information.  To read the juicy details, you can read the full results here. For now, let’s take a look at Buyers vs. Non-buyers.

Do You Fit the Profile?

Demographics

  • Buyers are more likely to be married, college-educated, working, and have high income and assets.
  • Non-buyers have slightly lower assets.  This is echoing what we see every day in our business. There has been a shift in LTCi sales to a much more affluent client than 25 years ago.

Opinions & Attitudes

  • Buyers are planners.  Buyers are more likely to think that they will need LTC in the future in comparison to non-buyers. Conversely, non-buyers choose not to plan for their future medical needs.
  • Buyers worry less about paying for LTC services than non-buyers. Non-buyers understand that if they need LTC services, the government will not be paying for it, although many non-buyers mistakenly believe that their needs will be provided for by the government.
  • Buyers tend to believe that they will probably require care in a nursing home or in their own homes at some point in the future. Non-buyers don’t think this is need will likely arise in their lives.

Cost Factors

  • For non-buyers, cost is the major barrier to becoming a buyer.  This hasn’t changed in 25 years.  Other reasons include: skepticism about insurance companies, lack of understanding of the real risk of LTC and confusion about what the state and federal governments will or won’t pay for.
  • Most buyers would prefer smaller, more frequent rate increases than larger, less frequent rate increases.
  • More than ¾ of non-buyers would be interested in purchasing LTCi if they could deduct the premium from their taxes. They believe that the government should encourage people to buy LTCi by making it fully tax deductible.
  • Non-buyers favor a government stop loss program of catastrophic coverage where they would buy a smaller LTCi policy that would wrap around a public program.  Members of the general population believe in the public financing of LTC.

Other Decisions

  • For non-buyers, ⅓ don’t plan to purchase in the future, but ⅔ do plan to become buyers at a later date.  These later buyers view LTCi as part of a retirement plan and believe that they can postpone becoming buyers until they are closer to retirement.
  • Most buyers understood that waiting resulted in higher premiums, so they started years before The majority of buyers cited the reason they didn’t delay this purchase until retirement was their understanding that the cost of insurance would increase in the future.
  • Most buyers don’t buy without seeking advice from other people. Those who most impacted their LTCi buying decision were their spouses/partners and their insurance agents. Most recently, financial advisors are becoming more influential in this decision-making process.
  • 70% of non-buyers say they would be more interested in becoming a buyer if they were able to comparison shop on the internet.

What we see consistently, for over 25 years, is that the #1 reason people buy LTCi is for preservation of assets.

So… Who buys long term care insurance? Maybe you!

Click here to receive a free quote for long term care insurance.

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, Uncategorized Tagged With: Information About LTC, LTCi

Elder Orphanism

March 17, 2016 by Honey Leave a Comment

Elder OrphanismWe will be reading more about elder orphans. Even if we have a slew of kids, we are likely to wind up as elder orphans. We must plan for this right now.

Here is a link to a beautiful column describing what the future is likely to look like.

Thanks to the author, Dave Nesbit, for allowing me to re-publish this.

“New Year’s Day is a time to turn the page on our bad habits and start new and positive behaviors.

Here’s a challenge of what self-interested baby boomers should resolve to do now—reach out with personal compassion and respect to younger people. This might seem to be inverted thinking from “respect your elders.”

Over the last century, progress in transportation and technology enabled the settling of our vast country and made the intergenerational family farm all but obsolete. Maybe your children, as mine, are now adults who have relocated outside of our geographic area to fill the labor needs of America’s expanding economy. As 20th century labor mobility has undercut traditional family life, affordable cellphone plans appeared in response.

In 1915, a 3-minute coast-to-coast phone call cost $20.70, which was 3 percent of the $687 average annual income. By 1940, that same call cost $3, when the average house rented for only $30 per month. By 1970, the 70-cent cost was the same as a McDonald’s quarter-pounder. Now the insignificant cost of a lengthy call, along with Skype, might deceive us into believing that our family needs are fulfilled by inexpensive communication. They aren’t.

Today’s communication is not much more meaningful than when I as a child chimed in “Hello Grandma, I love you” during a 3-minute call. Fifty years ago, Bell Telephone advertised that “long distance is the next best thing to being there.” Maybe it is, but it’s a “poor second” and an inadequate balm for the loneliness and vulnerability of older persons who are distant from their family’s younger generations.

When I was growing up, my mother “adopted” three widows who shared special times with our family. Those surrogates helped to fill the void of absent biological grandparents, who I rarely saw. Until she was in college, our daughter did not realize how lucky she was to grow up in the same town with two sets of grandparents who she saw often and knew well.

Especially since our children live out of state, I’m glad that my wife and I own long-term care insurance and have colleagues at Keystone Elder Law. Both will be great assets when aging causes us to become frail, and we need to develop and implement a caregiving plan. It certainly would be a healthy supplement if a surrogate, family-like relationship would develop outside of our organizational environment.

I have witnessed such an intergenerational relationship develop among members of a service club, when one is missing a parent/grandparent(s) and another is missing a child/grandchild(ren). Similarly, such relationships can originate naturally among neighbors. Churches that seek a means to translate scripture into practice could encourage and nurture intergenerational surrogate families.

Pennsylvania rewards live-in caregivers. The state initiates an action during probate to recover Medicaid funds paid to provide care in a nursing home. However, live-in caregivers who do not own their own home and who lived with an unrelated frail person for at least two years prior to that person relocating to a nursing home, may inherit the home free of any estate recovery.

In his futuristic novel titled “2030,” Albert Brooks suggests that, by that date, the national debt will have outpaced the gross national product, medical breakthroughs with cancer and other diseases will enable longer life expectancy, and older persons will be confined in worn-out and all-but-forgotten cruise ships that are anchored off the West Coast. Young people, who work harder and receive less, will be incited to form gangs and become violent against older people, who seem selfish to them.

Could surrogate families be a possible antidote for both the intergenerational separation caused by mobility, and the pessimistic clash between the young and old as told in Brooks’ novel?

Over the past half century, the American melting pot has blended Catholics and Protestants, and Christians and Jews, into neighborhoods and families. Is it too hopeful to imagine that Judeo-Christian families and neighborhoods will assimilate peaceful Muslims? Would acts of kindness from Judeo-Christians to vulnerable younger Americans not only lead to surrogate families, but also make our younger generation less vulnerable for recruitment by radicals who promote terrorism?

As my wife and I visited our children and grandchildren in south Florida over Thanksgiving, I observed a significant number of interracial families. This contrasted with my recent, sad experiences with a couple of families in which a parent had alienated their child decades ago because of an interracial relationship. Could it be that racial intolerance within families is waning as rapidly as the relevance of the cost of a long-distance call?

The legislature and courts have forced a legal settlement of most of the controversial sexual preference issues. Is Brooks correct that the emerging issue for the 21st century will be the young versus the old? According to a Pew Foundation study, the declining percentage of Americans who are younger than age 15 will cross over the growing percentage of Americans who are over age 65, at the number of 20 percent, just before the year 2030.

How will the legislature and courts manage public resources and entitlements, when fewer younger people are available to support the larger number of older people who live longer? Will life-prolonging drugs be provided to the poor? Will Medicare have maximum lifetime benefit? Will the cost of long-term care for seniors deplete Medicaid funding for young families and children? Will the ethics of assisted suicide and euthanasia be considered seriously?

Politicians have kicked the can of painfully real solutions into the future. Our children will be taxed excessively, not only to repay escalating public debt created by our generation, but also to pay for entitlement programs to take care of aging baby boomers. Be proactive about this dilemma.

If not out of shear kindness, then in recognition of your probable future long-term care needs, create a surrogate family. Find younger people in your neighborhood, service club or church to befriend graciously now. Maybe they will respond in kind to manage and advocate for your care in the future.”

Filed Under: Denial, Elephant in the Room, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC, The Magic of owning long-term care insurance Tagged With: Baby Boomers, Better Homes and Gardens, Boomers, Elder Orphanism, elder orphans, home care, Information About LTC, long-term care, Medicaid

Long-Term Care Insurance Has a Bright Future

April 17, 2015 by Honey Leveen 2 Comments

LTCi ConferenceI recently returned from a national long-term care insurance conference.

I noted the mood at this year’s conference seemed a lot less pessimistic about the long-term care insurance (LTCi) industry than it was last year.

In 2014 we saw continued poor press coverage of LTCi. Media gave mostly inadequate, usually negatively slanted, and sometimes incorrect explanations of LTCi rate hikes, with little advice on constructive ways to ameliorate them. New sales of traditional LTCi decreased. We saw higher premiums, tighter underwriting, and LTCi carrier withdrawals. 2014 was the worst year I can remember for LTCi in my 25 year-long career.

In short, the LTCi market just couldn’t get any worse than it was in 2014.

At the conference I learned that there were more legitimate reasons than my senses alone, to be hopeful about the future of LTCi. While my observations are based on anecdotal experience, it was very reassuring to learn that actuaries agree with what I think most full-time LTCi marketers observe.

Here is why there’s cause for optimism about LTCi:

The problem of who will provide LTC and how to pay for it is not going away. In fact, it’s like a freight train coming at us.

The LTCi market is now expanding, no longer contracting; two new LTCi carriers are in the process of entering the LTCi market.

In the news you will now find plenty of stories advising people that Medicare cannot and will not pay for LTC. You will also find articles about looming budget shortfalls and cutbacks. You will find stories graphically describing the sacrifices families make to provide care for loved ones who don’t own LTCi. You will find stories about our rapidly aging population, lack of caregivers, and impending Alzheimer’s epidemic. After all these years, most journalists still have scant understanding of how LTCi works; LTCi is seldom mentioned in news stories and still doesn’t get the accolades it deserves. But all other indications look good for the future of LTCi.

In his general session presentation at the ILTCI Conference, Roger Loomis, an actuary with ARC (Actuarial Resources Corporation) explained why I believe my suspicions about LTCi’s brighter future are correct. Mr. Loomis’s presentation was about the actuarial outlook on the stability of current LTCi rates. He made several key points.  Higher LTCi prices are obviously more stable. The industry has now had time to learn and benefit from its experience. The LTCi industry has more data to support pricing assumptions, less risky product designs are being offered, skill at managing LTCi is better now, and there are better modeling tools. Mr. Loomis used reporting from seven large insurers who have been in the LTCi market continuously for at least 15 years to back up his statements. He concluded that LTCi presently sold has a relatively low (approximately 12%) probability of a rate increase, due to near rock-bottom lapse and interest rate assumptions, plus other factors.

Anyone wanting the slides from Roger Loomis’s presentation should email me at honey@honeyleveen.com.

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC Tagged With: Actuarial Resources Corporation, Honey Leveen, Information About LTC, Long Term Care insurance, LTCi, LTCi rate hikes, rate hikes, Roger Loomis, Society of Actuaries, www.honeyleveen.com

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Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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