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June 2006 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Being Well Insuring Long Term Care, By Toby Laping, Ph. D., C.S.W., Private Care Manager Long term care insurance is surely an idea whose time has come. The cost of nursing home placement is easily $8,500 per month; the cost of home health care aides is about $20 hourly.
Veterans’ Administration benefits are typically not very beneficial for people in nursing homes. We often look to Medicaid to cover nursing home and home care costs, but Medicaid was never designed to serve in that capacity. It’s too costly for county and state budgets and it’s too cumbersome for applicants. Medicaid standards for eligibility can be elusive, frustrating and difficult for those who apply as well as for taxpayers who watch outflow of dollars. Paying for care from savings might be expected, but because of the cost, a realistic assessment of most people’s savings leads to the conclusion that long term care is beyond most pocketbooks. Combined with the desire to leave assets to one’s children, easing financial demands on the next generation, there’s a limit to the financial commitment we can anticipate from seniors when factoring in exceedingly expensive costs of care. So, by public policy fiat, we have been encouraged to purchase long term care insurance. Tax benefits have been granted and partnerships have been developed that could make such insurance quite beneficial. For many people, this is an appropriate and cost effective approach for calculating how to pay for long term care, and as we live longer the numbers will likely increase. Old age is not necessarily equivalent to healthy old age, and as time passes we’ll have more people vulnerable to the infirmities common to that cohort. Why is it, then, that when people respond as policy makers intend and purchase insurance from soundly rated companies, it can be inexcusably difficult to access that insurance? Fire walls that seem designed to discourage legitimate reimbursement, outrageous delays in sending payments so that people raid their savings to pay for care while waiting for approved insurance checks, or neglecting to inform insureds of required forms with such frequency that the idea of conspiracy comes to mind, are problems that frustrate even the most dedicated paper mavens. In the worst scenarios the NYS Insurance Dept., located in New York City, listens to consumer complaints and has significant power. A simple sentence to a supervisor in an insurance company, “I’m going to the State Insurance Department about this difficulty,” can be a very effective means of resolving an intractable impass with your long term care insurer. www.wnycaremanager.com back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |
