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Index of Long-Term Care Vulnerability: A Case Study in Virginia
The Virginia Free Citizen ^ | 11/26/13 | Steve Moses

Posted on 11/26/2013 8:09:18 AM PST by RightSideNews

Long-term care (LTC) for the elderly is already a large risk and expense for private citizens and public programs. The need for and cost of LTC will increase radically with the aging of the baby-boom generation. Most expensive long-term care, including care provided in nursing homes or by professional aides in family homes for more than nominal durations, is paid for by Medicaid, a means-tested public assistance program.

Medicaid already strains federal and state budgets, including Virginia’s. Yet major initiatives at the federal level and in Virginia are underway to expand Medicaid coverage in general and to make the program’s LTC benefits more attractive, accessible and efficient. Virginia Medicaid aspires to achieve those goals by re-balancing care from mostly institutional services to mostly home and community-based services and by turning over management of long-term care for more recipients with higher acuity care needs to managed care organizations. Virginia faces multifaceted long-term care problems including

(1) a rapidly increasing elderly population with (2) much higher numbers of disabled or dementia-afflicted people coming soon and (3) Medicaid already strained as the principal LTC payer dependent on (4) funding from the heavily indebted federal government as supplemented by (5) state revenues constrained by current recessionary and other budgeting pressures and promising, but limited future economic prospects with (6) very little private financing of LTC to relieve the budgetary pressure on public programs in the context of (7) heavy public dependency on social programs already and (8) a growing “entitlement mentality” among the citizenry.

(Excerpt) Read more at virginiafreecitizen.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: entitlements; healtcare; longtermcare; medicaid

1 posted on 11/26/2013 8:09:18 AM PST by RightSideNews
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To: RightSideNews

I need to find a place to get a pill that will put me to forever sleep. No nursing home for me—and I don’t want to be a burden on my kids.


2 posted on 11/26/2013 8:23:12 AM PST by basil (2ASisters.org)
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To: basil

come to Oregon.....they’ll help you “out”


3 posted on 11/26/2013 8:28:07 AM PST by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: RightSideNews

Baby boomers looking to further raid the treasury so they can spend their final days in the comfort they deem themselves entitled to.


4 posted on 11/26/2013 8:29:57 AM PST by Obadiah (I Like Ted.)
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To: RightSideNews

Thank goodness my wife and I bought a NWMutual LTC policy last year. They have already cancelled other policies after we got ours. Gonna get bad. Hopefully NW Mutual stays afloat....only AAA company in their market.


5 posted on 11/26/2013 8:34:35 AM PST by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!!)
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To: RightSideNews

My wife and I bought a long term care policy 10 years ago. The original cost was an annual premium of $800 each. In those ten years neither of us filed a claim, even when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I, along with hospice care workers took care of her and she was able to be at home till she passed away. I just received a notice that my premium next year will be going up to $4000 spread out over three years. Needless to say I will have to cancel my policy. LTC policies are basically “inheritance insurance.” Besides, I have no interest at all in spending my last days in a long term care facility. Told the kid to put me on an iceberg and shove it out to sea.


6 posted on 11/26/2013 8:54:29 AM PST by W.Lee (After the first one, the rest are free.)
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To: DCBryan1
“bought a NWMutual LTC policy last year. They have already cancelled other policies after we got ours.”

I bought a MET LIFE long term care policy back in 1990. A year or so ago, they stopped selling that but we who had it still have it. In 1989, husband had to have care 24 yrs. a day at home due to having a feeding tube. That didn't cost us anything due to the medical policy we had, but I saw those costs and they were astronomical and I knew I was about to be a single person with no one to help me, so I bought that long term care policy.

The only reason the insurance paid for that nursing care for him was due to having that feeding tube. None of it would have been covered without that. Of course, I didn't know then Hussein was going to destroy our health care system, so I'm glad I got that policy. I think Met Life will still be in business for a long time unless the whole country collapses.

7 posted on 11/26/2013 8:55:58 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: goodnesswins

That’s way too far and snaky—LOL!


8 posted on 11/26/2013 9:09:46 AM PST by basil (2ASisters.org)
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To: Marcella

I worked in the LTC division of MetLife for several years. As soon as I was eligible as an employee, I bought a LTC policy for myself. Still have it. I know that LTC can cost more than $50,000 per year, at least in Connecticut where I lived then.

Of course then they had to make price and coverage changes due to the high risk in all the legacy retiree plans they were still not making a profit. Since I left off working there, MetLife put a big push on life insurance in Asia so I think they’ll be able to compensate.


9 posted on 11/26/2013 9:51:33 AM PST by LurkedLongEnough
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To: LurkedLongEnough

“MetLife put a big push on life insurance in Asia so I think they’ll be able to compensate.”

They also stopped selling the LTC policy so that division only has those of us left who had the policy and that should lower the cost to the company as the older ones die.


10 posted on 11/26/2013 10:02:29 AM PST by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
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To: RightSideNews

We’ve bought LTC insurance for years. We don’t want to put that burden on our kids. It seems to help so that the house doesn’t go to the nursing home, having to auction off all the belongings. We plan to move to a smaller place in 8-10 years and we can give the kids what they want and sell what they are not interested in. That way there’ll be less to haggle over when that time comes.


11 posted on 11/26/2013 10:14:53 AM PST by Shery (in APO Land)
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To: Obadiah

That is not this program. Virginia is trying to off-load patients to HMO type nursing homes and for the most part they are not biting. A buddy of mine runs one and they very carefully look at profit or loss on each and every person they let in the door as the Government only pays a set fee per person per day. If you need expensive treatment, so sorry, you are not getting in.


12 posted on 11/26/2013 10:57:34 AM PST by ClayinVA ("Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it")
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To: basil

?snaky? we don’t have snakes here, except the gardner snake on the west, and rattlesnakes in the east


13 posted on 11/26/2013 3:19:34 PM PST by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: goodnesswins

It’s just an old southern sayin’.....

Actually, we did drive through parts of Virginia on our way to DC a few weeks ago.

It’s a beautiful state. My mom was born near Lynchburg-—her parents were born there, too.

As a matter of fact, 3 of their antecedents were in the first and second Houses of Burgesses.

It was a thrill for me to run my finger across their signatures when we were in Williamsburg a few years ago.


14 posted on 11/26/2013 3:44:48 PM PST by basil (2ASisters.org)
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To: basil

I’m talking about OREGON


15 posted on 11/26/2013 4:16:41 PM PST by goodnesswins (R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods.)
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To: goodnesswins

LOL! I don’t know why I was thinking VA

Oregon is one of the few states that we have missed visiting. We’ve talked about driving up though that part of the country, but haven’t made it there yet. The 4 states we have missed are Utah, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.


16 posted on 11/27/2013 12:57:42 AM PST by basil (2ASisters.org)
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