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How’s Your LTC IQ? Take a Fun Quiz

December 27, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

I hope you’ll enjoy taking the quiz below. I used it with great success at a talk I gave yesterday. I awarded a lottery scratch-off ticket to each person who gave a correct answer (I gave them printed copies of the article and told them where to find the answers). My students were quite engaged and seemed to enjoy it.

The questions below come from an October 28, 2014 US News and World Report article called, You’ll Likely Need Long-Term Care, But How Will You Pay for It? This article is great because it’s accurate, brief, straightforward, and well-researched. The article links its statements to the studies documenting them.

Long-Term Care (LTC) IQ QUIZ

1) What percentage of caregiving is done by unpaid family members and friends, including spouses, children and relatives?

2) What percentage of unpaid caregivers had to make financial sacrifices?

3) What is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US?

4) Nationwide, what percentage of LTC costs does Medicaid pay?

5) What percentage of Americans own LTC insurance?

6) What percentage of Americans are concerned about LTC costs?

7) What is the correct age to consider buying LTC insurance?

8) What is the annual cost of nursing home care?

Answers

1) 90%. I’ve done prior blogs on this.

2) 37%. I’ve done prior blogs on this.

3) Medical expenses which include LTC.

4) Two-thirds. See my blogs on Medicaid.

5) 15%. This is on the high side, other sources say closer to 11%. Bottom line: not enough of us!

6) 74% say they’d forego a cup of Starbucks a day to pay their LTC premiums. But they aren’t doing so!

7) In your 40’s. I’ve done prior blogs on why this is so.

8) $50,000/year. This is an average and is not for the accommodations you’d desire. Check out Genworth’s annual cost of care survey to find all care costs in your locale.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

December 18, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

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.

LTCi Current Events

August 25, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

I’ve just returned from my third long-term care insurance (LTCi) conference of the year, where I again was told that sales of new LTCi policies were down 26.5% in 2013 in terms of premiums and 22.9% in terms of number of policies. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we have many excellent products to help people prepare for the high risk and cost of needing long-term care. Some are new and some are traditional LTCi products. The newer products are non-traditional life insurance and annuity policies specifically designed to protect for LTC. These products greatly leverage premiums paid in if long-term care is needed. These new products are good; the bugs are out. They work.

LTCi premiums can be made reasonable and affordable. What may not be reasonable is needing LTC for anything but a short period of time and not owning LTCi.

If you are middle class-to-affluent, it is irrational to put off responsible LTC planning.

Sadly, most people remain irrational about the need for responsible LTC planning. There is something about the human psyche that dislikes having conversations about unpleasant, yet probable events in the future. I meet many people who can afford to own LTCi, yet instead they spend the cost of LTCi premium on “toys.” Such people are often financially and emotionally unprepared when the need for LTC arises. Sadly, such circumstances will increase as time passes.

This past year, the media has been more helpful than ever when it comes to broadcasting why the government can’t and won’t pay for LTC, as well as how important it is for Americans to plan for LTC on their own, in advance.

Despite this, Americans still refuse to acknowledge this grim, true advice.

Medicaid, a government funded program, pays for the majority of LTC in the US. Click on this link to see my blogs on why Medicaid-funded LTC is not the type of care people who own LTCi would choose.

Please share this information with people you care about. Do not be discouraged when they make up excuses to avoid LTC planning; instead, I hope you’ll keep trying to influence them. The time to plan and be prepared for LTC is now.

Perfect Storm Brewing in Texas Assisted Living Facilities

February 6, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

In “Budget cuts elicit fears for elderly” (Houston Chronicle, January 30, 2012, B1, B5), Renee C. Lee documented some frightening trends in Assisted living (AL) facilities throughout Texas.

As in virtually every state, the eldest Baby Boomers are turning 66 this year and the number of Texans needing long-term care will continue rising for the next two decades. On a positive note, the number of AL facilities has increased from 1,355 in 2000, to 1,440 in 2007, to 1,621 in 2011. Unfortunately, this growth is a mixed blessing because there are nearly 20% more facilities that must be periodically inspected to ensure that state regulations for the industry are being met. And Texas has been slow to revise current regulations to adjust to the growing demand for long-term care.

Second, the TX Department of Aging and Disability Services recently eliminated 60 inspectors who enforce state regulations! Consequently, the typical AL facility will be visited every 18 to 24 months. Even before the cuts in staff, horror stories of bedbugs, physical and sexual abuse by staff, and failure to report missing residents abound. The only rational conclusion is that less inspection will result in failure to detect more mistreatment of the elderly.

Third, “Texas requires as little as 16 hours of on-the-job training for attendants, allows medication to be administered without a license and doesn’t require specific staff-resident ratios,” Lee reports. Carmen Castro, an advocate for the elderly, referred to this situation as “the Wild West.”

So there you have it – a sobering combination of increasing need, less frequent inspection, and inadequate training and requirements for attendants is brewing in Texas (and very likely in many other states). These conditions can only lead to more misery for our parents and grandparents – and ourselves – in their final years.

One solution, so course, is for seniors to be very careful to choose only the most reputable, well staffed AL facilities with the best endorsements from current residents. Sadly, however, the high cost of quality AL can severely drain the life savings of many Americans needing long-term care. So many must settle for the cheapest facilities they can find.

On the other hand, Americans who own long-term care insurance (LTCi) are armed with financial resources that enable them to be much more selective about the type of facility they choose.

Medcaid Loopholes Easily Exploited by Middle Class

September 11, 2011 by Honey Leave a Comment

Here’s a press release by Dale Krause, an advisor who appears to specialize in Medicaid planning. I have recently written about my qualms with Medicaid planning, which I consider “gaming the system.” By using glaring loopholes in current Medicaid laws to re-position, shield and preserve often extensive wealth, advisors like Mr. Krause are often successful at enabling their clients, people of means, to qualify for Medicaid.

Medicaid is a program that was set up to assist the indigent and handicapped: people with little or no wealth. In addition, Medicaid-paid LTC is typically inferior to non-Medicaid-paid LTC. With our country’s grave financial crisis and an oncoming Silver Tsunami of Baby Boomers who’ll need LTC, I predict Medicaid-paid LTC will get worse, not better. We the tax payers fund Medicaid and ultimately wind up paying for the schemes Mr. Krause & others like him derive their income from.

Here is the comment I emailed the author of the press release:

“Hi Dale

Sounds like you are involved with long-term care on an abstract basis and haven’t really thought through the reality of such things as the dignity and options your clients will want. I hope you will take a few moments to read the linked article I wrote on the undeserved glorification Partnership LTCi often gets. I also think it would be wise for you to create a Plan B for when the government inevitably eventually closes the loopholes your strategies depend upon.”

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How’s Your LTC IQ? Take a Fun Quiz

Long-Term Care (LTC) IQ QUIZ

Answers

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Perfect Storm Brewing in Texas Assisted Living Facilities

Medcaid Loopholes Easily Exploited by Middle Class

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