From my America Out Loud Pulse Podcast with Stephen Moses – https://www.americaoutloud.com/the-ins-and-outs-of-long-term-care/
People are living longer and by 2030 about one in five Americans will be aged 65 years and older. Unfortunately, around 60 percent of adults suffer from at least one chronic condition, while 42 percent suffer from multiple conditions. Among those 60 or older, at least 80 percent have one chronic illness and 50 percent have two. Such conditions include heart disease, cancer, stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s, diabetes, kidney disease, debilitating hearing loss, blindness, and chronic lower respiratory disease (COPD, bronchitis, emphysema, asthma). Seventy percent of people who reach age 65 will eventually develop severe need, and 48 percent will receive paid care. The need for paid care spikes around age 85.
We hear interminable ads for life insurance with guaranteed acceptance and no physical exam that you can get in your 70s for under $10 a month! The unvarnished truth is that the death benefit is about $500 to $700—that amount would hardly pay cab fare to your funeral. We rarely hear ads for a type of insurance that we actually need and would improve our lives: long-term care insurance.
Ideally, our life’s medical trajectory would be good health for many years, then keel over one day and meet our Maker without going through a period of debilitation. I would venture to guess that most people cringe at the thought of spending their last years on this earth in a nursing home. Long term nursing care can be as high as $100,000 per year and many people look to the government to pay their nursing home bill.
But given the low reimbursement to facilities from the government and the low pay for workers in the long term care industry, it leads us to question the quality of care the residents receive.
My guest will discuss the ins and outs of long term care and what we should do to protect ourselves.
Bio
Steve Moses is president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform. The center promotes universal access to top quality long-term care by encouraging private financing as an alternative to Medicaid dependency for most Americans. Previously, Mr. Moses was president of the Center for Long-Term Care Financing (1998-2005), Director of Research for LTC, Inc. (1989-98), a senior analyst for the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1987-89), a Medicaid state representative for the Health Care Financing Administration (1978-87), an HHS departmental management intern (1975-78), and a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela (1968-1970). He is widely recognized as an experienced expert and innovator in the field of long term care. His recent monograph on the issue is Long-Term Care: The Problem.
