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LTCi Current Events

August 25, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

LTCi Current EventsI’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.

Filed Under: Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC Tagged With: Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Honey Leveen, Long Term Care insurance, LTC, LTCi, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Stephen Moses, Steve Moses, www.honeyleveen.com

Nursing Home Murders: Connecting the Dots with Medicaid-Paid LTC

May 1, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Connecting The DotsWith permission from The Center for Long-Term Care Reform, I republish their Monday, April 28, 2014 post about my prior blog.

The reason I chose to cover the horrific nursing home murders still in the headlines here in Houston, is because there is a link between failing to plan responsibly for long-term care well in advance and tragic outcomes, whether or not they’re of the magnitude of the Lexington Place murders.

Many who can afford reasonably priced long-term care insurance simply won’t entertain it. They make excuses to avoid such conversations. It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have.

The horror and negligence that occurred at Lexington Place Nursing Home may be isolated (or maybe not since most of us choose to turn our heads away from this type of event). Even so, the importance of these posts is to understand that such events may be indicative of a widespread trend that’s just beginning.

I’ve chosen to cover these tragic murders because to me, they’re the tip of the iceberg. The industrialized warehousing of the indigent who need care will increase as our national debt grows, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements continue to drop, and the partisan stalemate in Washington continues.  And this financial catastrophe is approaching at an increasingly rapid rate as government programs are deluged with unprepared Baby Boomers who need long-term care but did not plan for it when they were able to afford and obtain reasonably priced long-term care insurance (LTCi). Sadly, events like the Lexington Place murders may become more common.

This blog and the one before it are meant to educate. If these tragic posts help even one person wake up and decide to defer their purchase of a new flatscreen TV or more expensive car in favor of buying a reasonably priced LTCi policy, they’ll be worth it.

LTC E-Alert #14-014:  The Nursing Home Murders and LTC News and Comment

Monday, April 28, 2014

Seattle –

LTC Comment:  Did you see the news coverage last week about two nursing home residents bludgeoned to death by their roommate in Houston?  We opted not to cover it then, but the story does illustrate an important point.  Nursing homes, especially those in poorer areas, are heavily dependent on Medicaid which pays them less than the cost of providing the care.  Generous Medicare reimbursements help to make up part of the shortfall (at least for now), but the nursing homes most heavily dependent on Medicaid resort to cutting caregiver staff to a minimum and paying extremely low wages in order to operate.

So what?  Well, Honey Leveen, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Long-Term Care” and the Center’s Regional Representative in Houston, draws out the ramifications in her recent blog post here.  We encourage you to read it and to follow her links to more of the background.  Honey points out that the nursing home in which the murders occurred has “nearly all” Medicaid residents.  She opines that inadequate revenue led to dysfunctional management which resulted in poor care and finally in this awful crime.  She links to an earlier article she wrote for LifeHealthPRO questioning the value of “Partnership” policies that leave people dependent on Medicaid’s mostly nursing-home based care.

This is sad stuff, but information all LTCI producers should consider as they advise clients on long-term care planning.

Filed Under: Denial, Helpful Information About LTC, I'll Just Self-Insure, Information About LTC Tagged With: Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Honey Leveen, Lexington Place Nursing Facility, Long Term Care insurance, LTCi, Medicaid, Steve Moses, www.honeyleveen.com

New Studies Measure State Long-Term Care Vulnerability

December 23, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Steve MosesCould it be that after decades of steadfast battle to be heard, Steve Moses, President of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, is finally being listened to and sought after? Glory be!

I guess the timing is finally right. Governments on state and national levels realize how rapidly time is running out before the predominantly government-paid system of long-term care (LTC) we’ve complacently become accustomed to, implodes.

The Center for Long-Term Care Reform, which Steve runs, has been recently commissioned by GA, VA and NJ to study and produce indexes that measure long-term care vulnerability. If people will stop, look, and digest the results, they are terrifying.

The great thing about the recently published GA and VA studies and the indexes of long-term care vulnerability they produced, is that legislators and policymakers (and anyone else interested) now have analytical tools that will help assess and quantify the future sustainability of their state’s long-term care service delivery and financing system.

Here’s a link to the GA Study: http://www.georgiapolicy.org/ftp_files/IndexofLong-TermCareVulnerability.pdf. The index of long-term care vulnerability is found on pages 27-28.

More information about the studies and about the Center for Long-Term Care Reform may be found at: www.centerltc.com.

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC, Medicaid Planning Tagged With: Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Honey Leveen, LTC Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, Steve Moses

Studies Explain Why Americans Won’t Plan for Their Long-Term Care

December 23, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Long Term CareMy prior blog describes two recently published studies, commissioned from the Center for Long-Term Care Reform. For those of us who study long-term care financing, the studies are quite frightening. They quantify how economically vulnerable states are for long-term care (LTC) expenses. The studies were for GA and VA, and a forthcoming study will examine NJ. More information on these studies may be found at the Center for Long-Term Care Reform.

An op-ed piece for the Columbia County News-Times, by Steve Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, was published on December 11, 2013. In his piece, Steve describes how easy it is for a citizen with business savvy and means to get the government, through Medicaid, to pay for their long-term care. Even though publicly funded long-term care is of inferior quality, it is “free”, or rather, it is free only at the expense of taxpayers, while the citizen often preserves much of their wealth though clever legal strategies.

The fact that it is fairly easy to get the government to pay for long-term care anesthetizes the public and prevents it from responsibly planning for long-term care in advance, with long-term care insurance (LTCi). But the gimmicks for free LTC will certainly backfire as more states confront the dilemma of greater demand for Medicaid funds than they can possibly meet, and when the seniors who manage to get into Medicaid nursing homes become aware of the miserable environment in which they will spend the rest of their lives. In stark contrast, someone who needs LTC and owns LTCi will have many more options and access higher caliber care. Studies show LTCi owners also access care sooner, and with less panic and emergency than Medicaid (Welfare) recipients.

Here’s a link to the study done for Georgia: www.georgiapolicy.org/ftp_files/IndexofLong-TermCareVulnerability.pdf.

Filed Under: Denial, Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC Tagged With: Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Honey Leveen, LTC Insurance, LTCi, Medicaid, Steve Moses, www.honeyleveen.com

Jawboning De Rigeur, But of Little Use

November 26, 2013 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Recent coverage of long-term care by the parent company of the Public Broadcasting System’s NewsHour, and the SCAN Foundation, caught my eye.  (Watch below)

I want to thank Steve Moses, President of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform for bringing this story to my attention.

Steve has given me permission to re-publish portions of his blog, below. You will read how Steve pokes holes in the testimonies of some of the most reputable LTC experts in the country.

Before you read Steve’s comments, I wish to editorialize. All we ever seem to see covered in the news – whether it’s mainstream media reporting on long-term care or political posturing – is jawboning about the need for long-term care conversation, discussion, and planning. The words strewn by various LTC pundits appease and sound appealing, but they are without teeth. Nothing concrete is recommended for addressing the 5,000-pound elephant in the room, which is: how do we pay for long-term care presently and when we are deluged with a Silver Tsunami of Baby Boomers who are woefully unprepared to pay for their long-term care? The lack of solutions to this mounting dilemma is disheartening, frightening, and frustrating for my colleagues and me.

I am doubly disappointed when I see such insipid, superficial reporting from sources I normally have great respect for: PBS and NPR. Here’s a blog I did about comparably inept, superficial, inaccurate LTC reporting on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR: /2012/reaming-diane-rehm/

Here’s a blog I called Neither Party has a solution for the oncoming deluge of Medicare/Medicaid services. This blog describes why neither Republicans nor Democrats wish to broach the subject of long-term care planning. Another blog, entitled Dismal Outlook for Medicare, Social Security, also explains why it is a politically unsavory no-man’s land for either party to broach the subject of realistic long-term care financing. Here’s a blog I did titled National Commission on LTC Finds No Solutions for LTC Crisis. Here are the National Commission’s actual recommendations: http://www.ltccommission.senate.gov/recommendations.cfm. Read them, and you will see the same insipid jawboning and fluff as Steve describes in his comments below.

By the way, Steve, thanks for your acknowledgement and praise for my AMG (Altruistic, Masochistic, Genius) status! (Read Steve’s comments to learn about AMG’s.)

Here is Steve Moses’s critique of the recent LTC forum, titled “Global and Regional Models for Long-Term Care: Can They Work Nationally?“:

LTC BULLET: PBS’S 6 TIPS FOR LTC MISS THE MARK

LTC Comment: Millions watch the Public Broadcasting System’s NewsHour every night. So when that show addresses long-term care it’s worth paying attention.

You can read about and view videos from a forum, titled “Global and Regional Models for Long-Term Care: Can They Work Nationally?,” that MacNeil/Lehrer Productions (the NewsHour’s parent company) and the SCAN Foundation sponsored on Monday.

But if you have better things to do, such as advising consumers on how to protect themselves from LTC risks and costs without depending on tottering government programs, let me save you some time.

Following are quick summaries of PBS’s “6 tips for averting America’s looming long-term care crisis” followed by our critique of each.

PBS Tip #1: “Keep it Local” The Urban Institute’s Howard Gleckman says don’t seek a “single answer.” Rather work from the bottom up with friends, neighbors and families taking the lead. “To the degree that we can, government can at least try to stay out of the way of those solutions . . ..”

LTC Comment: Hear, hear! Finally something from this writer with which I can agree. But true to form, he reverts to form a few sentences later, advocating more and bigger government programs.

PBS Tip #2: “Change the Financing” Former CMS Administrator Dr. Mark McClellan, currently with the Brookings Institution, says “let people control how [Medicaid] money is spent on their behalf. That’s what’s behind our ‘Money Follows the Person’ [MFP] initiatives in states around the country . . ..”

LTC Comment: Terrific. MFP programs are a vast improvement over the current LTC financing system which makes providers–not patients–the program’s customers. But “Money Follows the Person” still depends on payments coming from an unsustainable welfare program. Making Medicaid more attractive to more people is not a solution.

PBS Tip #3: “Focus More on the Poor” Dr. E. Percil Stanford, president of Folding Voice and the KIND Corporation, says “Unfortunately, considerable [LTC policy] attention from the most well-intentioned institutions and organizations has focused primarily on the middle and upper classes.” Instead, he says, they should focus laser-like on the poor elderly.

LTC Comment: Right on, but how? No answer from this source. Research shows Medicaid’s LTC program benefits the middle-class and affluent as much or more than the poor. The solution is to target scarce public benefits to the needy and use some of the savings to incentivize early and responsible LTC planning by more prosperous people.

PBS Tip #4: “Build a Comprehensive National Strategy” AARP’s Debra Whitman wants us to spend more government money to help family caregivers, grow Medicaid, expand “affordable” housing and transportation, “integrate” health care services, and eliminate LTC impoverishment.

LTC Comment: Typical AARP eyewash. Not a word about where the money will come from to pay for such wishful public program expansions. The federal government already borrows a third or more of everything it spends. It forces interest rates to near zero to make such borrowing feasible temporarily. Watch out when this bubble bursts.

PBS Tip #5: “Begin the Conversation” Jennie Chin Hansen, CEO of the American Geriatrics Society [AGS], thinks we should “chat and chew” LTC issues with our friends and colleagues creating a “study group” opportunity to “discuss the universal journey.” She says “Let’s proactively help each other build greater confidence, clarity and capacity.”

LTC Comment: Doesn’t that advice sound vacuous coming from the head of the AGS? We’ve been jaw-boning long-term care for decades without addressing the real problem, i.e. government pays for most high-cost LTC which anesthetizes consumers to the risk and crowds out responsible LTC planning and private financing.

PBS Tip #6: “Make It a Human Right” Dr. Laura Gitlin of the Center for Innovative Care in Aging says “We need to grow a long-term care system based on . . . [the] principle . . . that long-term care is a basic right.”

LTC Comment: Of all the empty rhetoric in this program, the prize for thoughtless irresponsibility goes to this proposal. If people have a basic human right to long-term care whether or not they are able or willing to pay for it, their “right” means someone else must provide LTC whether or not they are compensated for their effort. That is the definition of slavery, which is what this ostensibly caring academic actually advocates.

Closing LTC Comment: When I see the subterranean quality of LTC policy analysis displayed in program’s like this one, I’m nearly ready to despair. The one thing that keeps me going is that a few of you AMGs (altruistic, masochistic geniuses) are still out there having truly valuable conversations with real consumers about how actually to protect themselves from escalating LTC risks and costs.

The whole wobbly Rube Goldberg apparatus of government-financed LTC puts enormous obstacles in your way. It gives away what you’re trying to sell. It makes your product unprofitable by manipulating interest rates so that its programs are artificially viable. It falsely assures citizens they’ll be taken care of by bankrupt social programs already under-funded by trillions of dollars. Yet you soldier on. Somehow.

Hail to the AMGs!

Filed Under: Correcting Ignorant Public Figures, Helpful Information About LTC, Information About LTC Tagged With: Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Honey Leveen, NPR, Public Broadcast System, SCAN Foudantion, Stephen Moses, Steve Moses

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

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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