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Eating For Life – An LTCi Benefit

September 3, 2019 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

eating for lifeMany people believe that, as they age, they will naturally fall victim to a variety of diseases. I want you to understand that there is nothing “natural” to this cycle. There’s a lot to the aging process that we have control over. Sure, it all catches up with us in the end. But isn’t it interesting to imagine living out more of your years with independence, vigor and joy?

A recent Op-Ed in the NY Times (Aug. 26, 2019) was written by two noted authorities on the subject. Dariush Mozaffarian is dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. His co-author, Dan Glickman, is a former secretary of agriculture (1995 – 2001). Their piece does not mince words. As stated in the title, “Our Food is Killing Too Many of Us“.

They make a well-researched argument for the value of healthy eating for life, especially in today’s climate of rising health care costs and reduced funding for government-sponsored programs. Almost half of the adults in the US are pre-diabetic or diabetic. 3 out of 4 adults are overweight or obese and cardiovascular disease kills 2,300 people every day. Every single day.

As they report, “More Americans are sick, in other words, than are healthy.”

 Eating For Life – A Hidden LTCi Benefit

Our newsfeeds are full of information about how our diet affects our health. Our diet also directly affects our wealth. By making the decision to eat just a little healthier, we can significantly reduce the burden of medical expenses and also increase the quality of our lives.

Here’s something you may not have thought about. The longer you can sustain a healthy lifestyle, the longer you can postpone filing a claim from your long term care insurance (LTCi). That means that the policy continues to build value over a longer period of time.

A study printed in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) found that over 45% of cardiometabolic (heart, stroke or Type 2 diabetes) deaths were due to poor diet. They specifically cited “excess sodium intake, insufficient intake of nuts/seeds, high intake of processed meats, and low intake of seafood omega-3 fats.”

Today’s Decisions, Tomorrow’s Benefits

This is totally preventable! I encourage you to review your typical eating styles and see if there are small changes you can make today. The benefits will last a lifetime. A lifetime that can be filled with more joy and greater vigor.

Now is also a great time to learn how long term care insurance can provide for you in your later years. Click here to receive a free, no-obligation quote for your own LTCi policy.

 

Filed Under: 3 in 4 Need More, Denial, Helpful Information About LTC, New York Times, The Magic of owning long-term care insurance Tagged With: healthy lifestyle longer life, live healthier, living longer, Long Term Care insurance, longer, LTCi, New York Times, plant based diets

Medicaid’s Woes Highlighted

October 14, 2016 by Honey Leave a Comment

MedicaidThis past month I’ve come across a few articles describing Medicaid’s woes, and highlighting peoples need to plan for funding their own long-term care, now!

This Washington Post story describes why our system is incentivized to discharge patients when they are still very needy, but their Medicare-paid re-hab benefits are exhausted. Medicaid can then often pick up costs, but it pays facilities poorly. This incentivizes facilities to admit the least needful and costly patients. In addition, “The Medicaid system is overly cumbersome and too slow to provide benefits.”

The true heroines of long-term care, paid home care providers, earn an average of $10.11 an hour, states this September New York Times article. About a third of these caregivers rely on food stamps and 28% rely on Medicaid for health insurance. Annual caregiver job turnover rate is 40-60 percent.

The article continues by stating caregivers at Medicaid-funded facilities got their pay raised to minimum wage: $7.15 per hour last year. Such caregivers are often overwhelmed with the sheer number of patients they must care for. “Ms. Walker left her job at a nearby nursing home because “sometimes you had 12 to 15 people to take care of,” she said. “You’re trying to feed everybody, give them baths, but a lot of people got neglected.”

This testimonial about Medicaid’s flaws on the receiving end of care is heart-wrenching, “When Roy Potter was weakened from postpolio syndrome and his wife, Joan, could no longer help him out of bed, a nursing home was “unthinkable,” said Ms. Potter, 83.

For a year, they paid private aides $14 an hour to come to their home in Mount Kisco, N.Y. When they could no longer afford that, Mr. Potter qualified for Medicaid, which pays the preponderance of home care costs in this country.

Over the next two and a half years, more than a dozen agency aides — some caring and competent; some not; some disappearing without explanation — cycled through their home, as did a number of short-term substitutes.

“A new person would come, and I’d have to walk them through everything all over again,” Ms. Potter said.

She grew increasingly anxious about whether an aide would show up. “Every morning I’d hold my breath until the doorbell rang,” she said. “Several times, I had to get in the car and drive to the agency and say, ‘Who is coming today?’”

Last year, when federal overtime provisions took effect, the agency cut back helpers’ hours.

She and her children succeeded in keeping Mr. Potter at home until he died in April, at 86, but finding and keeping help proved a continual battle.

Filed Under: Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure Tagged With: home care, Medicaid, Medicare, New York Times, nursing facilities, Nursing Homes, Postpolio Syndrome, Washington Post

Late in Life Decisions Are Often Impaired

June 6, 2016 by Honey Leave a Comment

Sumner Redstone
Sumner Redstone, center, at a 2012 charity event with, from left, Manuela Herzer and Sydney Holland, both ex-lovers who have figured in a battle over his care. Credit Brian to/WireImage

In what may be an “extreme example of the high stakes and chaos that can result, the Redstone pattern is happening in epidemic proportions,” reports a June 2 New York Times (NYT) article.

This article dovetails beautifully with my recent blog on the evidence proving why loss of cognitive speed, verve, and financial literacy is a normal part of aging.

Feuds between 93 year-year-old billionaire Sumner Redstone and his former mistress, estranged daughter, and former heir apparent have been graphically, publicly aired for the past few months.

The NYT article goes on to state that familial feuds like Mr. Redstone’s are becoming more prevalent due to Alzheimer’s and longer lifespans. The elderly are especially susceptible.

The article states that similar situations can often be averted by proper legal planning, with more explicit trust language. In addition, everyone should have and share extremely explicit personal, financial and medical directives, and of course, own long-term care insurance (LTCi).

Filed Under: Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Long Term Care insurance, long-term care, LTCi, New York Times, Sumner Redstone

Long-Term Care Insurance Can Be Costly but Effective

December 26, 2015 by Honey 1 Comment

Elderly WomanWhy doesn’t this New York Times article report on what its title promises it will, which is the effectiveness of long-term care insurance (LTCi)?

While being factually correct, this article puts the wrong “spin” on things.

It starts by giving the wrong title. LTCi is not necessarily costly. What can easily be far more costly is needing long-term care for anything but a short length of time and not owning LTCi.

The article “hooks” readers in the first paragraph by describing how LTCi preserves wealth. From there, this article gives readers excuses to avoid responsible LTC planning.

The truth is, the most important reason to own LTCi is not to preserve wealth. It is to preserve family integrity by reducing family resentment, stress and discord. The fact that LTCi also preserves wealth, and does it so well, is “icing on the cake.”

Families and governments are in budgetary crisis due to skyrocketing LTC costs.

Reporters and editors need to get the above perspectives corrected. Reporting needs to be done – now – on the hundreds of thousands of families collecting from LTCi and the radical qualitative difference that LTCi creates in their lives.

Here are some examples of the harmful “spin” I’m talking about:

The article hints that Ms. Cheng’s father is collecting enormous amounts from his LTCi policy, but it is not explicit about this. Why not? Why isn’t any space devoted to describing the extraordinary, qualitative difference LTCi has made not only for Ms. Cheng, but for her father?

Does Ms. Cheng own LTCi herself? Her advice about needing correct professional assistance with choosing LTCi, having a holistic outlook about the role of LTCi in estate planning, and asking children for input and help is sage. The reporter (Mr. Wasik)  should have asked her to comment about her own LTCi (if she doesn’t own LTCi, I just don’t understand why not, based on her personal experience and how wise she seems to be).

Instead, Mr. Wasik sidetracks readers with some “red herrings.”

There’s an irrelevant sentence describing how Keith Singer recommends clients with more than $500,000 should own LTCi. (I doubt he has any clients with less than a $500,000 net worth; most financial planners don’t.)  This sentence is harmful to readers, giving lower net-worth people one more excuse to dissuade themselves from doing responsible LTC planning. Such people are far more prone to catastrophe resulting from unplanned LTC needs. Here’s a story about a solid middle class couple with a 0,000 net worth that was devastated by unplanned LTC costs. This couple probably could have purchased very reasonable LTCi while they were insurable.

This sentence does not report on the effectiveness of LTCi (as the title purports) and is again potentially harmful to readers : “After a 90-day “elimination” period (often partly covered by Medicare for people whose need for extra care is hastened by a stroke or other medical emergency), the policy covers all assisted living, community and home care.” This perspective is incorrect, and further goads the American public to avoid responsible LTC planning by hinting that Medicare might assist with LTC costs. Medicare-paid LTC is not only paltry and inadequate; most people are not entitled to it.

Shame on Mr. Wasik and the NYT editors, whom I otherwise hold in high esteem. For the sake of the American public, reporting needs to be done now on the extraordinary, qualitative, transformative difference LTCi has and will make for hundreds of thousands of us.

Filed Under: 3 in 4 Need More, Denial, Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC, Misinformation About LTC, New York Times Tagged With: adult day care, assisted living, home care, home health care, Long Term Care insurance, Medicare, New York Times, Nursing Homes, Wealth Preservation

Your Wife is Going to Outlive You

September 18, 2015 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Wives Outlive HusbandsHusbands: expect your wife to survive you, reports the September 4, 2015 New York Times. Do not be evasive when your wife wants to discuss finances and long-term care (LTC) in your final years. Quit giving us excuses like “I won’t need long-term care”, “I’ll just kill myself”, “I’ll just self-insure”, or “my wife will take care of me.”  My experience has been that men are far more likely than women to say nonsensical stuff like this.

Smart women: when your husband tries to avoid an honest discussion of end-of-life plans, please assert yourselves. Go to marriage counseling or a financial planner before you acquiesce to his complacency and inability to envision what can happen if you’re not prepared.  I suggest your husband’s unwillingness to discuss such matters is already adding stress to your marriage. Challenge him on this, for your own good and that of your family.

I know plenty of people who regret not buying LTCi when they had the chance to. Instead, perhaps they took a very expensive trip instead of taking more of a budget-wise trip and choosing reasonable LTCi premiums.

I have plenty of clients who’ve collected on the LTCi I sold them and are grateful to me for doing so.

Get LTCi Now

Get your wills, powers of attorney, and other end-of-life documents in order now. Make sure your appointed beneficiaries are current.  Store such documents in a safe, accessible place. I also recommend uploading them to The Cloud (I use www.dropbox.com) and sharing these documents with those you most trust.

Filed Under: Denial, Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Honey Leveen, Long Term Care insurance, LTCi, New York Times, www.honeyleveen.com

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Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP
“The Queen, by Self-Proclamation, of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCi)”
404 Royal Bonnet
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Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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