When Medicaid was created on July 30th, 1965, the entire GDP of the United States was $791.1 billion, and no one could have predicted that by 2013 the U.S. would spend over $2 trillion on health care in a single year. Today, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all in the red and creating havoc for government budgets at the federal and state levels. According to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, this has become the number one concern about the future of the U.S….
White Papers
Private Pay or Medicaid? Long Term Care Benefit Qualifies for Both
On February 4th, 2011, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a dire warning in a speech before a gathering of top financial policy reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “The two most important driving forces for the federal budget are the aging of the U.S. population and rapidly rising health-care costs,” said Bernanke. He warned that the costs of caring for the rapidly growing population of seniors in the U.S. will be an unsustainable burden for the U.S. budget and a constant…
The Silver Tsunami and Long Term Care Funding Crisis
Executive Summary Demographic Profiles Cohort 1 Cohort 2 Cohort 1 and 2 Blend Impaired Risk The Wild Card: Economic Challenges Long Term Care Crisis Conclusion Sources Author Biography Author Bibliography Executive Summary The approaching surge of Baby Boomers and the ever expanding ranks of the 65+ generation have been on our radar screen for years. But today, it is no longer a concept far off on in the future. The reality is that the conversion of Baby Boomers turning into bona-fide seniors is actually now…
Life Expectancy Compression: The impact of moving into a long term care facility on length of life
Life Expectancy has been on an upward trajectory for over 100 years. According to the most recent report released by the AARP, the age group 65 and above will increase 89% over the next twenty years, and the 85 and older population will grow 74% during the same period. This rise in life expectancy, and the impact on quality of life was explored by James F. Fries in his 1982 study for the National Academy of Sciences entitled “The Compression of Morbidity”. In the paper,…
The Treatment of Life Insurance as an Unqualified Asset for Medicaid Eligibility
Over 10 million Americans now require long term care annually. Medicaid is the primary payer of long term care services in the United States. The national average cost of a nursing home is $72,000 per year, for assisted living it is $38,000, and for home healthcare services it is $21 per hour. Most people will drain all personal savings and assets paying for long term care in their first year of usage. In 2009, Medicaid spent $240 billion on long term care services accounting for…
The Growing Use of Life Insurance Policy Conversions
Life insurance is an unqualified asset for Medicaid eligibility, and billions worth of policies are regularly abandoned by uninformed seniors as they enter their “long term care years”. Converting a life insurance policy into a long term care “Assurance Benefit” plan is a Medicaid qualified spend down of the policy, and it extends the time a person remains “private pay” before going onto Medicaid.