“What Are Medicare Advantage Plans’ New Mini LTC Benefits Really Like?,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “A team of actuaries at Milliman says 577 Medicare Advantage plans are now providing at least one benefit that’s similar to the type of benefit a long-term care insurance policy might offer. The most popular “long-term care type benefit” is for support for caregivers: 421 plans offer caregiver hotlines, respite services or other caregiver support benefits. The most unusual LTC type benefits are benefits for housekeeping and therapeutic massage. Just one plan offers either of those benefits, the actuaries found. … A copy of the Milliman report
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“Seniors’ Health Costs May Be Moderating But The Need For Long-Term Care May Be Growing” by Howard Gleckman, Forbes “Instead of dying of heart attacks at 60, more of us will live to 85, when we will get dementia. That’s why we need to shift resources from medical care to long-term supports and services. … While Cutler and his colleagues didn’t put it this way, their research strengthens the argument that the US needs to shift resources from medical care to long-term supports and services.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Yeah, we really
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“One state’s single-payer push now includes LTC insurance,” by Marty Stempniak, McKnight’s LTC News “New York is taking another stab at adopting a single-payer healthcare system, and the effort includes coverage for long-term care. … The revenue to fund the bill likely would involve a progressive tax on some income, such as dividends and capital gains. A previous analysis by the Rand Corp. estimated that adding long-term care benefits would increase costs to the state by upward of $22 billion. That would amount to a total cost of about $139 billion in 2022, more than the state’s entire budget, Crain’s reported earlier
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“The Largest Individual LTCI Claim of 2018,” by Jesse R. Slome, ThinkAdvisor “Seven insurers told us about the largest claims they still had open as of Dec. 31, 2018. At each of those insurers, the largest open claim was for more than $1 million. At several, the largest open claim has surpassed the $2 million threshold. Most of the largest claims have been open for at least 11 years. The largest open claim of all has led to the payment of more than $2.6 million in benefits. The claim has been open for more than 15 years. When clients talk
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“THE NATION’S RETIREMENT SYSTEM: A Comprehensive Re-evaluation Needed to Better Promote Future Retirement Security,” Government Accountability Office “Fundamental changes over the past 40 years have led to various risks and challenges for the three main pillars supporting the U.S. retirement system. For example, current projections indicate that by 2034, the Old-Age and Survivors trust fund for Social Security’s retirement program—the first pillar—will only be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits, due in part to the aging of the population (see figure). Other federal government retirement-related programs also face financial uncertainty. For example, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which
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“The Medicare Plan Market Is Alive!,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Enrollment in all types of Medicare Advantage plans increased to 21 million in January, up 7.6% from the total for January 2018, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Enrollment in the core Medicare Advantage health maintenance plans increased 6.9%, to 13.5 million. A separate CMS database shows that enrollment in the traditional Medicare program, which CMS calls Original Medicare, increased to 38.8 million in December 2018, from 38.3 million in January 2018. Total Medicare enrollment increased to 60.4 million in December, from 59.4 million in January.” LTC Comment
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“How to keep nursing home costs from devouring your life savings,” by Lou Michael, Buffalo News “The state Health Department estimates the average annual cost of nursing home care in the Buffalo region at about $123,000, but it can be substantially more depending on the facility. Cappiello’s monthly checks to Elderwood at Lockport will add up to $144,000 by the end of this year. But he could have protected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the nursing home. Though complex, existing laws provide people with a pathway to protect their assets, become legally poor and qualify for publicly funded Medicaid
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“A change is happening in Maine with wide-ranging effects: State is seeing more deaths than births,” by Brian MacQuarrie, Boston Globe “But across the state, the rapid aging of Maine’s population — a trend known by some as the “silver tsunami” — has reached a crucial tipping point, many say. As baby boomers head into retirement, and many young people move away in search of opportunity, Maine is one of only two states, along with West Virginia, where deaths now outnumber births. That gulf is reshaping life here in myriad ways, from shrinking the workforce to intensifying the demand for
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“Secrets From the Medicare Advantage Producer Comp Spreadsheets,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Federal regulators have set tight rules for agent compensation at Medicare Advantage plans — but most of the issuers are interested enough in new business that they will pay some compensation to agents. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency in charge of the Medicare Advantage program, tells the tale in two spreadsheets it has posted in the agent broker compensation section on the Medicare managed care marketing section of its website. Issuers said they pay no commissions for some sales of 69% of the
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“Brighthouse Prepares to Launch Life-LTC Hybrid,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Brighthouse Financial Inc. is preparing to introduce an indexed universal life (IUL) insurance policy designed for the long-term care (LTC) planning market. The new Brighthouse SmartCare IUL policy will offer purchasers access to a rider that can provide a pool of LTC benefits with a value linked to the performance of an investment index. Eric Steigerwalt, the president of Brighthouse, talked about the new IUL product today, during a conference call Brighthouse held to go over the company’s earnings for the fourth quarter of 2018 with securities analysts.” LTC Comment
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