LTCi Archives - Page 24 of 30 - Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen

Continued Medicaid Payment Shortfalls Are Very Scary

December 21, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

Here’s a link to the December 2012 Report on Shortfalls in Medicaid funding. This is an annual report commissioned by the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and performed by Eljay, LLC.

Not surprisingly, the report (page 6) states that:

“Between 2010 and 2012, the… projected (Medicaid) shortfall climbed to $22.34 from $18.54 in 2010, a 20.5 percent increase in the shortfall amount.”

“We estimate that in 2012, state Medicaid programs, on average, reimbursed nursing center providers only 88.9 percent of their projected allowable costs incurred on behalf of Medicaid patients. This means that for every dollar of allowable cost incurred for a Medicaid patient in 2012, Medicaid programs reimbursed, on average, approximately 89 cents. This represents the lowest percentage since the inception of this study in 1999.

This is very scary stuff!

Obviously, the government is less and less capable of providing long-term care.

I hope that those of you who do not already own reasonably priced long-term care insurance (LTCi) will take heed and plan responsibly for your long-term care. LTCi is the reasonable – and sure – way to ensure you will have all the options you’ll prefer if long-term care is needed.

New Educational Video Featuring Honey

December 19, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

My very good friend and collegue, Marilee Driscoll, has given me this video entitled, “LTCi Creates Choice Later in Life” as a wonderful holiday gift.

Marilee is a noted author, consultantant and speaker, with special expertise in the area of long-term care insurance (LTCi).

Marilee has also demonstrated her skills as a talented video director. The video was not scripted and was completed in only three takes. Marilee prepped and prodded me to relate this true story as only a gifted director can.

The video is just over a minute long and is a very useful educational tool that helps people learn about why LTCi ownership can make such a huge qualitative difference in peoples lives.

Scott Burns Demonstrates He Knows Very Little About Long-Term Care Insurance

December 3, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

The following was written in response to Scott Burns’s poorly researched column on long-term care insurance (LTCi) published yesterday:

Your premise is fallacy-based; you do your readers a true disservice.

Medicaid dependency should never be complacently recommended to the broad middle class who have income and some wealth. Care in Medicaid facilities is already very substandard. More budget cuts are in store. Imagine how foul already foul Medicaid-paid care will be in 15 years when Boomers start accessing it en masse.
You pan the insurance industry. All it did was the responsible thing, unlike the government, which just “prints” money. The LTCi industry has shown prudent, responsible stewardship of LTCi. Policies will be honored when people need them. LTCi policies are now innovative and can be made reasonable for almost anyone willing to discuss them. The problem is people like you do not do your job as journalists and research properly. Many of your journalist peers “get” LTCi a lot better than you appear to. Columns like yours give the public more excuses to not have a conversation they prefer to avoid about responsible LTC planning. 22+ years of experience convince me this is the primary reason more do not own LTCi.
Where did you get your statistics? The statistics I have are that 70% of the public will need some type of LTC going forward from age 65. 50% of all LTCi policies pay. Average claim length is 2.5 years. At least 15% of claims last more than 5 years. I can introduce you to the leading LTCi actuaries who collect and interpret these statistics over many years. They will be glad to provide you with accurate information. You are hindering, not helping, your readers.

Don’t Count On Working Longer As A Remedy For Inadequate Savings

September 26, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

Workers may think delaying retirement is a solution to inadequate savings, but this may not a reliable strategy, finds Kiplinger’s Personal Finance reporter Eleanor Laise in her September 12, 2012 column.

More than one out of four workers now plan to retire at age 70 or later, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That’s up from 16% in the pre-crisis days of 2007. Just 8% of workers expect to retire before age 60, down from 17% in 2007.

But there’s a jarring disconnect between workers’ expectations and retirement reality. Fully half of the retirees surveyed by the EBRI this year said they left the workforce earlier than planned, and just 8% of them said that positive factors — such as the ability to afford early retirement — prompted the move. For the vast majority of early retirees, negative circumstances, such as company downsizing, played a role.

Please take heed. In today’s harsh economic times, there is a greater need for long-term care insurance ownership than ever before.

Children of Aging Parents Often Nearby

September 21, 2012 by Honey Leave a Comment

In her New Old Age article (“Children of Aging Parents Are Often Nearby, Study Finds,” New York Times, September 14, 2012), Paula Span reports on a new study by Michal Engelman, a University of Chicago gerontologist. In his study, Dr. Engelman gives insight into why parents move closer to their children as they age.

He found that people who own long-term care insurance (LTCi) are less likely to move closer to their children, apparently because “it shows potentially less need for family care. If they need more help, they’ll be able to get it.”

Here is additional proof that owning LTCi gives people options and increases independence. LTCi ownership reduces stress and burden to family members.

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Continued Medicaid Payment Shortfalls Are Very Scary

New Educational Video Featuring Honey

Scott Burns Demonstrates He Knows Very Little About Long-Term Care Insurance

Don’t Count On Working Longer As A Remedy For Inadequate Savings

Children of Aging Parents Often Nearby

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