“It’s ‘never too late’ to prevent or delay dementia, international commission claims,” by Alicia Lasek, McKnight’s LTC News   Quote: “Modifying 12 key risk factors could delay or prevent 40% of dementia cases, according to an updated report by the Lancet Commission. Many factors can be tackled late in life, the authors say. The international group of 28 experts has added excessive alcohol intake and head injury in mid-life, as well as air pollution in later life (aged 65 and older), to a list of risk factors it established in 2017. Others include smoking, depression, social isolation, physical inactivity and diabetes later in life,
Read More

“Whole Life Insurance … Love It or Leave It?,” by Michael Aloi, Kiplinger Quote: “In the case of my 60-year old retiree, the policy required five more payments. We concluded his old whole life policy was not going to meet his needs going forward. Instead, we did a partial 1035 tax-free exchange of his old whole life cash value into a fully paid-up long-term care insurance policy. A 1035 exchange allows taxpayers to avoid paying income tax on the gains of whole life cash value if you exchange it for another life insurance, long-term care or annuity policy. The new
Read More

“Mourning The Many Foibles Of Medicare And Medicaid At 55,” by Sally Pipes, Forbes   Quote: “You’d be hard pressed to find two more wasteful, fraud-ridden programs than Medicare and Medicaid. They grow less fiscally sustainable with each passing year. And they routinely deliver subpar care that, in many cases, does little to support patient health.”   LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): So, what does the LTC intelligentsia propose? Either add long-term care to Medicare or create a new, compulsory, government LTC program. Throw good money after bad? Worse than that! There is
Read More

“Scientists get closer to blood test for Alzheimer’s disease,” by Maryilynn Marchione, Associated Press Quote: “An experimental blood test was highly accurate at distinguishing people with Alzheimer’s disease from those without it in several studies, boosting hopes that there soon may be a simple way to help diagnose this most common form of dementia. … The disease is usually diagnosed through tests of memory and thinking skills, but that’s very imprecise and usually involves a referral to a neurologist. More reliable methods such as spinal fluid tests and brain scans are invasive or expensive, so a simple blood test that
Read More