Home Care
Long Term Care In The News
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had some interesting statistics on labor growth predicted for the next decade. The article stated that 95% of new jobs would be in the service sector.
Previous articles have noted that the fastest growing service profession is caregiving. Earlier this year the New York Times estimated that by 2020 (four years from now) there will be more people working in caregiving than work in retail.
Where are all those low wage workers going to come from? And speaking of low wages, the minimum wage is increasing, in many locales doubling to $15 per hour. Since most Long Term Care (LTC) is minimum wage labor, what will this do to the cost of such care?
Currently $3000 a month is the base cost at many assisted living facilities, assuming you really do not need any help. A median cost is $4500 a month and dementia often goes for $6000 a month. Nursing homes often are $10,000 a month. Costs have been increasing at a rate of over 5% per year (the past 8 years of recession excepted). Now with interest rates having risen, inflation will increase, and minimum wage earners will be demanding higher wages.
How many of you can afford to pay for LTC for very long out of your current savings when your health changes? Many people tell me they plan to die in their sleep, a noble hope, but not likely to work out for you. Can your children leave their jobs, children, homes to come care for you? I doubt it.
The baby boomers continue to pass through age 65 at 10,000 a day. Some of them (like myself) have LTC insurance. The facilities want people like me as they lose money on the low Medicaid reimbursement levels. When there are enough people who can pay for their LTC because they purchased LTC insurance (or the few who are rich), the facilities will start declining to accept people on Medicaid.
I don’t want to think about the day when I can no longer properly care for myself either, but I know I will not become a burden on my children and will have ready access to the care I want, in a nice place I can afford. I no longer stay at Motel 6, even if they do leave the light on for me. I have become accustomed to nice surroundings and have little interest in changing. If home care can work, my policy will pay for that too.
You know the day is coming, are you going to investigate what you can do for yourself, or ignore it until it happens? You don’t need a lot of money to get LTC insurance. Since the fall back option is to sell everything, including the house and your life insurance to go on Medicaid, you might use some of that house equity to get coverage so you can stay home if you want, to or stay in a nice place (not your children’s basement).
For more information visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com You can email me questions at [email protected]
How To Care For Two Parents at Once Without Going Broke
“The biggest challenge of all is holding onto your patience.”
Reprinted from Money Magazine
For years, Madeleine Smithberg has been at the forefront of American comedy as co-creator of “The Daily Show” and a talent coordinator for “Late Show with David Letterman.”
That sense of humor was especially handy during the last few years. That is because Smithberg had to cope with not one, but two elderly parents in rapid decline.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says Smithberg, 56, who heads a production company in Los Angeles. “And yet it’s invisible, because nobody talks about it.”
“It’s like having toddlers,” says Smithberg, whose father passed away in 2014 after she moved her parents to Los Angeles. “They’re hot, they’re cold, they’re hungry, they ask repetitive questions, and their needs become the most important thing in the world at that second… The biggest challenge of all is holding onto your patience.”
According to a new study by Northwestern Mutual, the childrearing comparison is apt: 59% of Americans feel that taking care of two parents between ages 85 and 90 would be even harder than handling two kids between ages 3 and 5.
Caregivers may also have kids of their own. In that case, it’s not just the “Sandwich Generation” – it’s a Triple-Decker.
The Northwestern Mutual report found that 38% of those surveyed have not planned at all for handling the financial burdens of caring for elderly parents.
The costs can be gigantic: National median costs for an assisted-living facility are now $43,200 annually, according to insurer Genworth Financial in its annual Cost of Care study. A private room in a nursing home? $91,250.
That is more than enough to blow up any financial plan. The following is advice on how to care for your parents without going bankrupt yourself.
Long-Term Care
“Long-term care, long-term care, long-term care.” That’s the simple advice from Smithberg. Her father had taken out coverage for himself and his wife, which she calls “the best thing he ever did.”
Long-term care insurance covers expenses for nursing home or home care if you become incapacitated – most of which is not covered by Medicare. The coverage, like the care, can be extremely expensive, and to be sure, it did not cover all of Smithberg’s parents’ assisted-living costs. But, combined with their own life savings, the policy has meant that she has not yet had to dip into her own savings to pay for their care.
Have the Talk
With the holidays right around the corner, it is one of the few times of year when far-flung families tend to gather in one place. Don’t let the opportunity slip by to discuss your parents’ expectations, should illness arrive. Find out if they have advance directives – documents that spell out what treatment they would and would not want during a life-threatening health crisis. Make sure you establish who has power of attorney, should they need someone to make important decisions.
“It’s the perfect time to have this kind of conversation,” says Kamilah Williams-Kemp, Northwestern Mutual’s vice president of long-term care. Her spouse’s grandmother lived to 102, and her mother-in-law has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Consider a Reverse Mortgage
Reverse mortgages allow homeowners aged 62 and above to borrow against their home equity and to receive either a lump sum, a series of monthly checks or a line of credit that can be tapped as needed. The upside of a reverse mortgage? With the bank paying you every month, instead of the other way around, that check can help cover costs for in-home caregivers.
Tom Davison, a financial planner in Columbus, Ohio, is working with a 90-year-old woman whose daughter moved in with her as a caregiver. “A reverse mortgage could help (the daughter) pay her the wages she has given up,” Davison said.
Be sure to have proper documentation that the child is actually employed by the parent. If not, and later Medicaid is needed, Medicaid will count each payment to the child for care as a gift, disqualifying the parent from Medicaid. rraabe
The downside, of course: The family home will eventually become property of the bank.
The proceeds from the reverse mortgage can also be converted to an income for life – but NOT like an ordinary annuity which uses your average life expectancy. When health is not good and life expectancy is less than “average” then a company that takes that poor health, and “shorter than average” life expectancy into account gives a much larger monthly payment. rraabe
Get Help
Your first instinct as a child may be to drop everything and handle all your parents’ needs yourself. But if it comes at the cost of your own career, think about the ripple effects – on your retirement savings, on the needs of your own kids, even on your own sanity.
With Americans extending their lifespan – 76.4 years for men, 81.2 years for women, according to the National Center for Health Statistics – this is a family challenge that won’t be going away anytime soon.
Denver financial planner Kristi Sullivan recommends hiring a case manager to do the heavy lifting.
“For an hourly fee, these people can handle tasks quickly that it might take you hours to do – scheduling doctor’s appointments, handling medical payments and dealing with insurance, helping find a good nursing home or in-home care,” Sullivan says. “Spending this money may seem expensive, but it’s less than putting someone’s career on hold to become a full-time caregiver.”
For more strategies, financing options, or ways to deal with the costs of Long Term Care even if not planned for in advance, contact www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
Private Industry Has Solutions For Funding Care At Home That ADRC’s Do Not
I attended a dementia hearing recently. Eight Wisconsin legislators were listening to ideas and problems in dealing with dementia in Wisconsin. Many of those testifying spoke of how people will not accept home care because they think they cannot afford it.
People rely on family for help and care because they cannot afford home care. The most common advice these people receive from social workers and ADRC’s is to spend down to impoverishment and end up on Medicaid. In many cases, this means selling the home and moving to a facility with absolutely nothing left at death to pass on. No wonder people are terrified of needing Long Term Care someday.
Private industry has solutions as well, and often times they are completely overlooked. I am not speaking of LTC insurance here, once care is needed it is way too late to be trying to buy insurance. Let me give you an example.
Imagine you are an older American, living in your home (the only real asset you have) with very little money in savings and trying to get by on Social Security. You know you cannot afford to pay $1000 to $2500 a month for home care and so you just try to get along by yourself or with the help of family or friends.
Someone in this position often does not realize they can utilize the one remaining account they still have – Bank of House. A reverse mortgage is not something to go into frivolously, but as a last resort, it can keep you in your home.
You could take out the available money from a reverse mortgage and spend it for care until it is gone, but wouldn’t it be much better if the money lasted as long as you did? There is a way to convert the equity in your home into an income for life – a monthly check to use for home care that continues until the day you die, no matter how long that is.
If you used the proceeds from a reverse mortgage to buy a regular life income annuity, that would probably be a very bad idea. A life income annuity is based on how long the annuity company thinks you will live – based on age and gender. Remember, your health is not the best, you need care, and may not have as long a life span as others of your chronological age who are healthy.
There is one company that takes your poor health, and thus your shorter than average life expectancy into account, and will require far less money in return for that income for life -based on your shorter than average life expectancy – than a regular annuity would. Many times I have been able to convert the equity from the reverse mortgage into enough monthly income to pay for home care and keep people in their homes for the rest of their life.
So, often it comes down to this choice: Sell the house, spend down the money until impoverished, apply for Medicaid, and end up in a LTC facility with nothing left over. Or, take the equity in the home out through a reverse mortgage, and convert it into a life income, paid monthly, for as long as you live. By taking into consideration that your life expectancy is less than other healthy people of your chronological age, you get a bigger income and can pay for the home care you thought you never could afford.
For more information visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com or call me at (920) 884-3030 or (800) 219-9203
Adult Day Care is Great Respite For Caregivers, But They Are Closing Up
Adult day care is a wonderful break for family caregivers. Family can take their loved one to a day care program where care is provided 5 days a week typically, and get a “day off” from caregiving duties.
Caregiving wears people out physically, emotionally, spiritually. Your batteries get drained and then you cannot provide proper support for your loved one, especially if round the clock care is required. There is a reason the airlines tell you to put on your oxygen mask before helping others, if you are worn out, you are no good to anyone else.
Thus, adult day care can provide a respite day, or possibly as many as 5 per week, giving the caregiver a chance to breathe. It may be difficult to secure 5 days per week care, as there are generally waiting lists to get in. This is very popular, and bear in mind that the great majority of LTC services are still provided by family caregivers.
So, why are these places closing up? In Wisconsin, much LTC is provided by a program called Family Care. It was originally designed to use Medicaid dollars to pay for the lowest cost care available for each recipient, instead of using it for the most expensive setting, a skilled nursing facility (nursing home).
Of course, when the government pays for the more desirable assisted living facilities or care in your home, everyone wants in, upping the usage exponentially and raising rather than lowering costs. Spreading the available dollars among more recipients also lowers the dollars available for each one.
So now the reimbursement for adult day care is so low that the adult day care facilities cannot afford to remain open.
But it only costs $45 to $80 per day to pay for adult day care out of pocket, and on a monthly basis of one day a week that is about $200 to $400 per month, surely affordable for many, you would think.
Apparently, the problem is that the families are wanting to save the available funds to use when an assisted living facility is needed. Often times, if you do not have enough funds to pay for assisted living for at least 2 years, the facility may not accept your loved one. This is because once the money runs out and you turn to Medicaid (of which Family Care is part of) the facilities will be losing money on the care.
A LTC facility cannot require you to leave when your funds run out (unless you agreed and signed off on this at admission). It is also not possible to remain open for business if you lose money on every resident. Thus the facilities often require that you have funding available for a period of time before they will admit you. If you have no money other than Medicaid or Family Care you may end up searching far and wide for a facility that will accept you. Will it be the place you want to spend the rest of your years?
For more information, visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
Being Stuck In Sandwich Generation Is No Baloney
Reblogged from CNBC
One-time real estate agent Evelyn Rehg was showing a house to a prospective buyer four years ago when an alarming phone call came from the retirement facility where her mother lived.
“They told me I either had to get my mother immediately into a mental hospital or she would be evicted,” said Rehg, 48, of Crestwood, Missouri. “I panicked,” she added. “I didn’t know how to handle it insurance-wise, what hospital to take her to or anything like that.”
Rehg’s mother, 80, suffers from mild dementia, severe anxiety and manic behaviors that now are treated properly. But prior to the phone call, her mom’s anxiety had become so debilitating that she began calling Rehg’s cell phone upward of 200 times a day.
In desperation, Rehg, then still working in real estate, changed her number because she needed her phone for work. So instead, her mother started incessantly calling the front desk at the retirement facility. “They put up with it for about a day and a half,” Rehg said. “Then they called me.”
Rehg also has two children, who were then 12 and 9 and needed supervision and care. That meant that her husband, Jon, had to adjust his work schedule to tend to their needs.
Financial advisors say that in addition to the emotional drain, “sandwichers” may also face a financial burden if they haven’t taken an interest in the steps parents have put in place to ensure they receive proper care.
“It’s important to talk about financial things, but allow your parents some space,” said Rita Cheng, a certified financial planner and chief executive of Blue Ocean Global Wealth.
“You don’t need to be completely involved in their business, because they still want to be independent and in charge,” she said. “But ultimately, if they want to be in charge of how they are cared for, they need to be proactive and plan for it.”
After the call that made it clear that her mom’s condition had deteriorated, Rehg checked her into a mental health facility. It was the first of a handful that Rehg had researched before her mother received a diagnosis and effective medication.
But then her mom fell and broke her arm and spent several months in a rehab center. She then lived in Rehg’s house for about six months, until the situation became too challenging for the whole family.
Rehg, who by then had given up her real estate license, eventually found a suitable assisted-living facility and moved her mother there.
Gregory W. Edwards, a CFP and partner at Lawless Edwards & Warren Wealth Management, is also in the sandwich generation. His father, who had lived next door to him since 2001, died in 2011 after losing his battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
His dad was financially well-equipped to pay for his care, but Edwards organized it—and it was complicated, because his father’s wishes stated that he never wanted to be put in a nursing home.
During the last two years of his dad’s life, the cost to care for him in his own home was $7,000 to $8,000 monthly.
Additionally, Edwards and a brother each now give their mother, who was divorced from his father years ago, about $1,800 a month toward her various expenses, medical and otherwise. “People have no idea of what’s coming down the pike when it comes to the cost of care in the last months of life,” he said.
For many sandwichers, the pressures from the parent side outweigh those from the child side.
“The hardest part is feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Sometimes you have to make hard choices and you have to be patient with yourself.”
Rehg said that without her husband, she doesn’t know how she could have managed the situation.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life,” she said. “At the height of it, I was probably spending 40 hours a week on my mom—paying bills, talking to doctors, visiting her, medicines—and trying to work 30 to 40 hours a week and take care of the house and two kids.”
Cheng at Blue Ocean Global Wealth said that it is a difficult balancing act.
“The hardest part is feeling overwhelmed and overworked,” she said. “I have to give myself permission that I’m only one person and this is stressful. Sometimes you have to make hard choices and you have to be patient with yourself,” Cheng added.
There are strategies that can help no matter what your current situation dealing with LTC. In some cases, even if someone is on Medicaid already there may be ways to help improve the financial situation. Of course, owning a good LTC insurance policy is the best way to have the cash flow to pay for the help you need. For more information visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
A Retirement Riddle Answered, Or Not?
Last week a well known mutual fund company attempted to answer the question of why so many retirees die with significant savings left. Is it because they wish to leave large amounts for family? Perhaps they are afraid to spend the last dime just before death? This trend suggests many retirees don’t enjoy their final years as much as they could.
Few older folks seem interested in life income annuities, which could give them a guaranteed income for life with no worries, yet they keep the nest egg close at hand and don’t invade it.
The study seems to indicate that the reason is the fear of potential long term care costs that drives retirees to clip coupons, dine out at 4pm to catch the early bird special and forego expensive trips. If it comes down to it in the last year, and they had to choose between an uncomfortable year versus a comfortable year, they would choose to spend the money on making it more comfortable.
For the upper middle class, 75th percentile of wealth, health care was regarded as a necessity and bequests as a luxury. It was also surprising that people are interested in assistance with daily living expenses, but are not interested in long term care (LTC) insurance.
Perhaps this is due to old beliefs that LTC insurance only covers nursing homes. For many years now, such coverage is good for in-home care, adult day care, assisted living facilities or nursing homes. Nearly all policies also cover “alternative plan of care” for locations or strategies that have not been invented yet, but may be in the future.
The most surprising thing about this study (to me at least) is that traditional LTC insurance can be purchased with just the interest on a portion of the savings people set aside to pay for care. Instead of leaving a significant amount of assets set aside for care, the interest check from just part of that sum could provide the insurance coverage and leave the reminder that is unspent to be passed on to family.
Years ago, I was a representative from a LTC insurance company to a large bank chain in Wisconsin. My job was to show the stockbrokers there how to address LTC funding. I would attend teller meetings and ask if the tellers knew clients who withdrew $5000 or $7000 a month, every month. Every hand went up. My next question was what they spent it on and the answer in every case was a spouse needing LTC. With today’s costs reaching or exceeding $9000 a month, the problem is even worse.
There are many strategies to deal with the costs of LTC, but the least expensive is LTC insurance with a built in 5% compound inflation factor on the amount available for care. This will keep up with the costs of care over the years and frees up your life’s savings to experience life with – instead of waiting for that last year or two. This coverage is, in most cases, less than is typically thought it would cost (if chosen appropriately). For more information, visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
Seven Things To Know About LTC Insurance
1. You may not need as much of it as you think
There is usually no need to purchase enough of it to cover the cost of care in the locale where you may use it. Bear in mind that most income such as Social Security continues until death, as do, pensions, interest income, etc. Lifestyle will change too, no Branson, MO trip anymore, cruise, camping, and other fun things may not happen when one cannot participate leaving more of your income to put towards the cost of care.
2. 70% of us will need care (2015 Medicare and You, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
So don’t think it won’t happen to you. As healthcare in the US improves, things that used to kill us, now only “wing” us, causing more need for care in later life.
3. Women are at significantly increased risk
About 68% of nursing home residents and 72% of assisted living residents are women. (Source: Long-Term Care Services in the United States: 2013 Overview, National Center for Health Statistics) Thus there is even more urgency for women to obtain coverage, and to do so before things like their first bone density test. Many LTC insurance companies charge women significantly more than men, BUT NOT ALL!
4. Don’t believe the average cost surveys.
Some areas of the country cost much less than other areas to receive LTC services. The lowest costs are in West Virginia and Louisiana. New England and Alaska are among the priciest locales. Check out the actual bills where you may need care, not just the median cost.
5. Medicare does not pay for LTC
This gets confusing as Medicare will pay for up to 100 days in a nursing home following 3 days inpatient in a hospital, for the same reason you were hospitalized, and while you are improving (medical care). It save Medicare money to have you recover in a $300/day nursing home bed than a $3000/day hospital bed. Most of us who need care, will need more than 100 days, and if we did not spend 3 days inpatient in a hospital, we may receive no Medicare coverage for the nursing home.
6. I can afford to pay if this happens to me
Really? Not all care is significant enough to allow deducting it as a medical expense. If you need $100,000 that you can spend out of your IRA or 401K account, you will need to withdraw approximately $200,000 so that you have $100,000 after the new “rich person” income tax bracket you will be in. Even if you can afford it, why would you want to when insurance can cost pennies on the dollar to pay the bill versus using up your assets that you may want to leave to family or charity.
7. It won’t be that long, none of my relatives have needed care for long
20% of people needing LTC will need it for more than 5 years. If you follow averages of how long people might spend in the nursing home, remember than only about 20% of LTC is provided there. The majority of care is provided in your own home (no statistics for that) or in assisted living facilities (4 years average stay). Now add that to the “average” nursing home stay of 2.5 to 2.8 years depending on which survey you read and it might be a while.
For more information, visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
Why Do Medicare Reductions ($400 Billion) Matter?
Our president wants nursing homes to deliver care much more efficiently and for significantly less over the next ten years. The proposal indicates that Medicare can save $400 Billion over the next 10 years in reimbursements for nursing home recovery care following a hospital stay.
There are also proposals afoot to raise the minimum wage by nearly a third. Nursing home care is overwhelmingly bricks and mortar and minimum wage help. With labor costs going up, more and more utilization as the baby boomers turn 65 at a rate of 10,000 a day, how will Medicare save $400 Billion dollars?
Medicaid already requires impoverishment before it will pay for your Long Term Care. Perhaps the look-back could be extended to 10 years from the current 5 (that has already been introduced in Congress twice, but died in committee). Perhaps a new requirement will be to force reverse mortgaging of the family home before Medicaid eligibility is granted. Many options are on the table, and the result of each idea is less available government money to cover LTC for you and I.
I am fine. I have my LTC insurance policy. Do you? If not, is it because you heard that they are way too expensive? Or have you heard that you must be in perfect health get the coverage? neither of these excuses are valid – if you plan with someone knowledgeable on how LTC actually works.
Imagine if one of a couple becomes laid up and requires day to day care for bathing, dressing, toileting, etc. Will that couple still own two cars and a Harley or a pickup truck and camper? I think not. Will they go to Branson, MO this year? Probably not. Will there be a cruise in their future, I doubt that as well.
When one of a couple needs LTC, the “fun” budget shrinks drastically, or disappears entirely. If a single person requires LTC, they may find themselves “stuck” in the home versus living there, especially if they cannot drive. In that case, an assisted living facility might be less expensive and provide much more social interaction. With the household and auto expenses eliminated, and both of those items converted to cash that can earn interest, one might find themselves able to pay the majority of the monthly bill. It might only require a small addition from a properly sized LTC insurance policy to make up the difference.
That is the benefit of investigating LTC insurance with a specialist who understands the finances of care. Most people will never require a nursing home, but may be able to use an assisted living facility or stay at home with their family. Thus, a policy sized for that will handle the great majority of care situations. Then with health and ages taken into account, the most appropriate company can be priced and voila, reasonable, affordable LTC insurance can save the day.
If, however you wait, wait until your health changes and nobody will insure you, you have waited too long. You need homeowners insurance before the tornado. You need auto insurance before the accident. You need LTC insurance while you are still healthy enough to get it. When your annual physical comes up and the doctor says “I’m going to write a prescriptions for”…….. you know immediately that you waited too long. How long will you wait? Do you feel lucky this year? Do you?
Considering LTC Insurance? You Might Find Something Entirely Different Is Substituted
So, you’ve decided to investigate LTC insurance. Now, which type do you look at or might be suggested by the agent? You can keep things simple by concentrating on just a few important points:
1. How much money will it give me WHEN I NEED CARE?
2. How long will I be able to collect that money?
3. Will the policy increase each year automatically to keep up with the increasing costs?
4. Will it pay MY claim?
Traditional LTC insurance will guarantee how much you get, how much that dollar amount will increase by automatically each year, how many years of care it will pay for, as well as paying when you need assistance with 2 activities of daily living or a cognitive impairment.
The only traditional LTC insurance policy that cannot do the above is the one sold to teachers by their union that will only pay 3/4 of the claim, no matter how much benefit you may have paid for.
Some of the “new” products using life insurance or annuities as their base will only pay out if the need for care is permanent, meaning there is no chance of your recovery, ever. Others cannot tell you what the benefit will be when claim time comes. It is only determined at that time by some complicated formula.
Some of these offer what seems like a large amount of money each month to pay for care, but fail to mention that the monthly benefit never changes as inflation eats away at that benefit. Recall back to what gasoline cost per gallon when you first learned to drive and you will realize that inflation is real.
There are a few of the life/LTC insurance policies that will give you a guaranteed 5% compound increase in your benefit every year. If this strategy appeals to you, be sure it does include that automatic 5% compound inflation benefit. Costs of care have been going up a bit slower the past 5 years, but the past 5 years have been the worst economy since the great depression. With the 80 and over gang predicted to triple in 20 years, and a shortage of caregivers is already evident, cost will go up by at least 5% compound in our foreseeable future.
As you can see, there are many different types of products, with many options, some important, and others not so much. Rather than purchase something because your neighbor bought it, you might consult with an expert in LTC financing to learn what is best for you. There are even options for people who have been told they cannot get this coverage, or may already be receiving care in their own home or a facility.
More information is available at www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
Why You Shouldn’t Count On Your Family To Take Care Of You When You’re Old
The Washington Post recently published an article claiming that the great majority of Americans think (incorrectly) that their family will provide their care when they are old.
First of all, 60 percent of adults between 40 and 65 don’t think they will ever need any long term care (LTC). The Health and Human Services office in Washington DC tells us that 70% of us will need such care. 20% for between two and five years and 20% for more than 5 years.
Fortunately, only about 15% is done in nursing homes (at a typical cost of just over $100,000 a year). The great majority of LTC is provided in your own home or in the assisted living type facilities, at about half the cost of nursing homes.
“A major reason people are too optimistic is that they think their families will take care of them. Almost 75 percent expect their families will provide long-term care, which was about seven times more than those expecting to need a home health agency, nursing facility or assisted living facility, according to the Health Affairs study, which analyzed responses from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey. People in the survey were asked to say who they expect would provide long-term care, even if they didn’t think they needed it.”
(Health Affairs)
The Health Affairs study also warned that the 29 percent of people ages 40-65 who live alone could have the greatest needs for long-term care. They had the worst health of any group in the survey, were much less likely to rely on family to provide care and had the greatest expectation of any group that they’d need to pay for long-term care services, according to the University of Minnesota researchers who authored the study.
Ozzie and Harriet lived in the 1950’s and into the 1960’s. Harriet stayed home, wearing a dress, heels, and a pearl necklace. She had the time, space, and energy to have parents or in-laws move in and provide their care. How many of you have children who stay home wearing dress, heels, and pearl necklace with the time, energy and finances to provide all of your care? I didn’t think so!
LTC insurance does not need to be expensive – if chosen appropriately. There are many options, and knowledgeable guidance can help greatly. Just as you might not invest based on your barbers advice while getting a haircut, seeking out a specialist in the financing of LTC can result in custom tailoring coverage to the risks you wish to cover, and no more.
One universal piece of advice to consider is the impact of inflation. Numerous recent articles have stated that the costs of LTC have only increased an average of 3%/year during the past 5 years. This is correct, and the past 5 years have been the worst recession since the great depression of the 1920’s. Minimum wage is set to increase legislatively, employment is picking up and who will fill the workers slots at minimum wage going forward? A recent New York Times article stated that professional caregiving will overtake retail as the number one profession in America in just 5 years. We did not have enough children to provide our care! Costs will increase more than 3%, and 5% is the best inflation hedge we have. it is absolutely essential!
More information can be found at www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com