Silver Planet™ Help Your Parents Age in Place.

When I discussed Medicare a couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed that I didn’t cover long-term care. In general, people who require long-term care are not sick in the traditional sense; instead, they are unable to perform the basic activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, getting in and out bed, eating, and walking.

Here are some eye-opening statistics from the Long Term Care Insurance National Advisory Center:

Understanding Medicare can be quite a task. I’m going to briefly explain the basics, as well as what some of the new changes will mean. Most of this information is from Medicare.gov, which is an excellent, but often overwhelming, resource.

In some cases, the decision about whether or not to purchase long-term care insurance is easy to make. If your assets are below $250,000, or your current cash flow could not sustain the monthly premiums, consider forgoing coverage. On the flip side, if your assets are above $1.5 million, you might consider self-insuring.

If you have decided that purchasing a long-term care policy is right for you, here are some suggestions:

“If you want an example of a successful single-payer system, just look at Medicare,” many say.

I say, not really.

A single-payer system is the form of universal health care Canada and Great Britain use. Several groups are advocating for it. People on the right tend to view it as socialized medicine at its worst. Many on the left think it’s ideal. President Obama has tried to distance himself—and his plan—from it, frustrating some Democrats.

Buyers of long-term care insurance are often motivated by the expanded choice of care facilities that insurance provides. No longer are they limited to nursing homes and assisted living campuses that accept Medicaid. Don’t assume, however, that those facilities are somehow substandard or less than desirable. Do your homework and visit the homes in your area before you conclude anything.

The following statistics are from materials prepared by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

For folks turning 65 in 2005, 79% of women will need long-term care, while 58% of men will need it. (Women’s longevity has a downside!) Here is what the records show for both sexes:
   

This month’s blog postings are about long-term care insurance. Do you need it? How much will it cost? What are some options for financing it?

First, let’s start with some assertions that may not necessarily be obvious to all:

Of course not, you say. Ridiculous. But could an ABCNews.com report about 64-year-old Oregon woman Barbara Wagner suggest otherwise? When she was dying of lung cancer, the state insurance refused to pay for her cancer treatment because the drug didn’t give her a “5 percent survival after five years.”

This statement is untrue, IF you know what you’re doing. All states have Medicaid programs. I emphasize the name only because most of my clients confuse Medicare with Medicaid. They are two completely different government programs—with one exception, which will be covered in my next blog.