Long Term Care Insurance Expert | Honey Leveen | Houston, TX
Helping you make informed LTC decisions
No one researches and easily, clearly explains the need for responsible long-term care planning as well as The Motley Fool.
In their January 4, 2015, The Motley Fool explains why Medicare doesn’t/can’t/won’t pay for long-term care. They also advise people to prepare for long-term care costs ahead of time.
Motley Fool, I admire and love you! You do your readers — and the world — good, by explaining things succinctly, with great insight.
A report proving how and why long-term care insurance (LTCi) helps all of us and our country was just published. LifePlans conducted the study over a period of twelve years. It was commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
Here’s background on the report.
The report shows that that for LTCi policyholders:
For Family Caregivers, the report shows:
Why the report proves that LTCi is good for America:
The graphics in the report are great. They are straightforward and easy to understand, as is the report itself. If you would like to receive a copy of the entire report, email me at honey@honeyleveen.com.
Many of the recommended changes could be accomplished without legislation. Other recommendations are just common sense AND would save a lot of money.
Here’s a summary of the recommendations:
My opinion is these changes cannot happen soon enough. I hope such reporting, accompanied by public outrage, continues.
Tying into last week’s news of the new report titled “Dying on America” I will recommend two stories that bring the report into the most personal of terms.
Here’s a past blog I did describing a gripping, highly rated book called, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”. It puts what is imparted in the new report into very poignant, personal, compelling terms.
Just like the book “Knocking on Heaven’s Door, an article in the September 25, 2014 New York Times, called “Fighting to Honor a Father’s Last Wish: To Die at Home” is a heartbreaker.
Both the New York Times article and Knocking on Heaven’s Door put a human face on what “Dying in America” recommends, in the most poignant, heartbreaking ways.
The New York Times article describes a very beautiful, loving, highly functional American family. Despite the daughter’s tenacious, enduring fight to bring her father home, and at great personal sacrifice, our current system kept her father away from home. Most of his final years were spent bouncing between various forms of expensive, often negligent, in-patient care.
Home would have offered the father far more dignity and quality of life, much less suffering, at far less cost. The article beautifully, heartbreakingly, illustrates this.
Quoting from the article, “Many geriatric experts say that if the wasteful medical spending on this stage of life could be redirected, it could pay for all the social supports and services actually needed by today’s fragile elders and their families. Instead, public money has been shuffled in the same system, benefiting health care businesses but not necessarily patients.”
The changes recommended would most likely come at a net savings to the government. I hope reporting like this, combined with public lobbying, brings the recommended changes.
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.
"Honey - Whenever I need a clarification regarding our “LTC” you are “Johnny on the spot” responding in a very prompt manner, reassuring me, informing me in a concise way, patient with me as I massage the understanding in my own words. Your knowledge is current and expressed with confidence, offered in your conscientious and upbeat personality. 
It is a pleasure to work with you. Thank you for your expertise." ~ Nancy Damon, Houston, TX
Thanks for visiting my site! I like hearing from you!
Here’s how to reach me:
Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP
“The Queen, by Self-Proclamation, of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCi)”
404 Royal Bonnet
Ft. Myers, FL 33908
Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177
Email: honey@honeyleveen.com
Email: honey@honeyleveen.com
