Long Term Care Insurance

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Long Term Care Stories
ABONDONING OUR ELDERS—LITERALLY

This story is short, sad and telling. Three months ago, a 93-year-old woman named Catherine Frazier was left at the door of the Easy Living Personal Care Home, a retirement residence in the small town of Cleveland, Texas. She was left, presumably by relatives, holding only personal records and family photos.

Police were immediately notified and are still searching for Ms. Frazier’s relatives. Nothing in her personal records has helped to locate family members. She is evidently an educated, kind woman but has not been able to help police with the search. Currently, Ms. Frazier is being cared for at the retirement home, but they will not likely be able to care for her indefinitely.

So many of us working with long term care issues—companies, organizations, advocacy groups, government agencies—have been sounding the alarm, calling for a larger, integrated response to this looming long term care problem. Steps have been taken, but the going is slow and more immediate crises like our position in Iraq and what to do about health insurance keep bouncing long term care to the rear burners.

Likewise, citizens, struggling with their own problems in a challenging economy, are hesitant to shoulder the long term care risk through purchase of yet another insurance policy.

But long term care problems—too many elders, too few taxpayers, too few who can afford to pay for care privately, and the baby boom demographic right around the corner from retirement—are not going to go away because we ignore them. We will wake up one day and find a real long term care crisis on our doorstep—too many Catherine Fraziers, too few relatives able to care for them, and not enough private or tax dollars to provide them with professional care.

Source: Caregivers Home Newsletter, Nov. 22, 2004

Do You Know Enough About Long Term Care To Plan Ahead?
Take A New Quiz To Find Out.

In mid-October, the MetLife Mature Market Institute released the results of its national poll titled the "Long-Term Care IQ Test." According to its results, only 2% of Americans between the ages of 40 and 70 received a "B" or better, 7% got a "C", and 28% passed with a "D"—leading study managers to conclude that most Americans are not knowledgeable enough about long term care to properly plan for their long term care needs.

The study revealed two important misconceptions:

• Over 80% of those polled felt that a nursing home is the most likely place to receive long term care.
  In fact, more than half of all long term care recipients live in their homes.
• 41% believed long term care is an entitlement available to all Americans following retirement, and that Medicare, Medicare Supplement or disability insurance also pay for long term care services.
  In fact, long term care is not an entitlement. Medicare, an entitlement program, pays very little toward long term care costs. And Medigap and disability insurance policies generally pay nothing for this kind of care. What does pay for some kinds of long term care is Medicaid. However, Medicaid (called Medical Assistance in Minnesota) is a poverty program, not an entitlement program, and recipients must first spend down their assets in order to meet eligibility requirements.

You can test your own long term care knowledge. Take the test and see what you do and don't know. If you find yourself lacking long term care information, take a stroll through our Long Term Guide.

is a health and long term care insurance advisor with Benefit Management Consultants, Inc., a three-person family business operating out of its Edina "home" office. Contact her at 952-922-6625.