If you are considering a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy you should be aware that there are many ways to save money through discounts offered by insurance companies. These discounts and potential savings include;

• Spouse / Partner – Savings up to 40%
• Preferred Health – Savings up to 20%
• Increase your Deducible – Save up to 10%
• Small Business – Save up to 5%
• Buy Before an Age Change – Savings of 5-10%

Over the next several blogs we will be describing each in more detail. In the meantime if you speak with an insurance professional make sure they are aware of these savings opportunities.

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In recognition of the enormous social and economic impact of long term care and the costs associated with that care, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to increase the accessibility of long term care insurance (LTCI) to Americans.

The “Long-Term Care Affordability and Security Act” would would permit LTCI to be included in employer-sponsored cafeteria plans and flexible spending accounts (FSAs), enabling people to pay LTCI premiums using pre-tax dollars.

You can visit govtrack.us to read the full text of the document and track the bill’s progress.

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We just received an email announcing a rebroadcast of a PBS special on aging, “Living Old,” that we wanted to pass on. This looks like a worthwhile program that explores the issues of what is described as “the first-ever mass geriatric society,” and what that means both socially and economically.

This Week: “Living Old” (60 minutes),

March 17th at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings)

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This week, as President Obama attempts to move forward with major health care reform, and increasing numbers of Americans struggle to provide for their aging relatives in a down economy, FRONTLINE is rebroadcasting “Living Old” — a poignant exploration into the lives of the elderly. For the first time in our history, “the old old” — those over 85 — are now the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. 

“We’re on the threshold of the first-ever mass geriatric society,” warns Dr. Leon Kass,  the former chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics. “The bad news is that the price that many people are going to be paying for [an] extra decade of healthy longevity is up to another decade of anything but healthy longevity. … We’ve not yet begun to face up to what this means in human terms.”

Reckoning with the staggering impact of prolonged life is exactly what producers Miri Navasky and Karen O’Connor attempt in this film: Through an intimate examination of the modern realities of aging — from the perspectives of the elderly, their families, and the doctors and nurses caring for them — they paint a picture of a world that will ultimately touch us all. 

We hope you’ll join us for the broadcast Tuesday night. In the meantime, visit our Web site to sample the full program streamed online, read the press reaction, and also sample some of the hundreds of letters we’ve received about this film.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/livingold/

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We have found a great site worth bookmarking, McKnight’s Long Term Care News & Assisted Living.

McKnight’s offers multiple, short and informative news reports every day on issues surrounding long term care and assisted living. Some of the most recent reports examine such issues as healthcare reform in the new Obama administration and the challenges facing the call by healthcare experts for Medicaid expansion.

This is definitely a great resource as you explore your long term care options. For more information about long term care and long term care insurance please visit our Resource Center.

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The Women’s Institute for Financial Education gives a good overview of why long term care is a crucial financial and emotional issue for women;

Women, especially, bear the brunt of these care costs. Because women live longer than men, they require lengthier care as they age, and because women often assume responsibility for their family’s health and welfare, the task of caring for elderly parents, an ill spouse, or disabled brothers and sisters usually falls to us. With long-term care insurance, you can get the assistance you need and your loved ones deserve.

Longevity and social expectations tend to shift the burden of care as well as the need for care to women. Because of this, insurance for long term care an important issue to consider in the financial planning and protection. An LTC insurance specialist can assist you in exploring whether LTC insurance is appropriate for you and your family.

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The IRS allows qualified Long Term Care Insurance premiums to be deducted with some limits. Those limits for 2009 have been established and this article from the Davidow Newsletter has a good explanation of what those limitations are as well as what qualifies as a tax deductible policy.

A qualified Long Term Care Insurance specialist can help you determine the best policy for you.

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LTC Connects is pleased to provide you with QuickFACTS® newsletters in partnership with MetLife’s Mature Market Institute, a well-established and pioneering think tank on issues surrounding aging and retirement.

QuickFACTS® is a monthly newsletter providing stats, trends and information on issues related to aging, including retirement planning and financing, workforce demographics, international aging, caregiving, long term health care, health and retiree benefits from a variety of sources. We have newsletters from January 2007 to present and will continue to update as issues are released.

We hope you will find the information helpful.

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We live in a transient society these days which means families are often spread apart in different towns and often different states. This distance raises concerns and challenges for the 34 million Americans that currently provide care to older loved ones (15% of those live a minimum of 1 hour away from that loved one). Setting up and managing care for a loved one from a distance can be tricky and if you are facing this situation, please take a look at the Long Distance Caregiving guide we have available for download in our Resource Center.

The guide details the specifics of setting up and managing care from a distance including

1. Assessing the situation

With what does the loved one need assistance? Do they need help with Activities of Daily Living (also known as “ADLs” and include bathing, transporting, feeding) or “supportive care” (laundry, housekeeping grocery shopping etc).

1. Locating and implementing community resources

Depending on the needs determined in the assessment you will need to locate resources locally to support those needs. If they have a long term care insurance policy and qualify for receiving care, contact their insurance agent for guidance. If they do not have a policy or only need supportive care, some resources include local hospitals, social workers, senior centers. A federally funded program to assist in locating help for elders is Eldercare Locator.

1. Organizing and tracking important documents

Keep track of copies of important docuements and information such as Social Security and Medicare cards, birth certificates, physician names and numbers.

1. Ongoing Care Monitoring

When you have care in place you will need to routinely and randomly monitor the quality by visiting (both announced and unannounced) and through phone calls and email.

1. Maintaining control of your own life while caring for an older loved one

Often personal lives are put on the backburner when caring for a loved one. The guide provides tips on how to avoid neglecting those areas.

The task of caring for a loved one can have a huge emotional and financial impact. But preparation and ongoing management of the situation can lessen these impacts.

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It seems that every week I hear about another friend or collegue that has had (at best) to adjust their life, or (at worst) completely alter their life because of an aging parent’s need for care.

My own family is involved in a situation currently that has caused me to reflect on the question of how things might be different if a parent were to have long term care coverage. One of my parents is currently recovering from a life threatening condition, and while his recovery would not fall under long term care, it has made me realize the effects of children caring for their parents.

As is often the case, either due to family dynamics or, as in our case geography, one child is left to shoulder most of the burden of care. I just returned from a week at my brothers’ family’s home across the county, where my father is recuperating, and saw first hand the level of stress, potential loss of income due to less time to work, as well as the emotional toll that is caused when a child is responsible for the care of a parent.

I watched as my brother and his wife (who have three small children of their own) tried to juggle the constant care of my father with their own lives (work, caring for their kids, keeping a house running). The potential loss of income from losing time at work, the stress it places on a family and the emotional drain is all too real. Often I hear from others about the difficulties their own parents have accepting care from their children, in particular the physical needs tend to be the most difficult to accept (feeding, bathing, transporting etc.). There is a loss of dignity that comes with a child providing these things to a parent. So much of this could have been avoided if the parent had a long term care policy that allowed them to remain at home, receive care from paid professionals, and allowed the children to simply care about the parent as opposed to caring for them.

While we cannot turn back the hands of time and purchase policies for all of our aging parents, we can learn from the mistake by exploring the option of obtaining long term care insurance coverage when we are still young enough and healthy enough. If you are a caregiver please visit our Caregivers Resource Center for further information.

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