“The cost of senior care: Why aging farmers fear the nursing home”

“The cost of senior care: Why aging farmers fear the nursing home,” by Juliana Kim and Tim Evans, NPR

“Long-term care insurance exists, but it’s deeply unpopular with older Americans. So, many seniors dip into their retirement or savings to get the care they need, while others apply for Medicaid, which has its own challenges. … Long-term care insurance is rife with its own problems, from complex underwriting to rising premiums. … Short-term care policies are a newer alternative to long-term care insurance, said Lance Boyer, a sales director at Farmers Union Insurance in North Dakota. But their benefits usually last no more than a year. … Another option is Medicaid, which is the largest single payer for long-term care in the U.S. In North Dakota, while the program completely covers nursing home costs, enrollees can only have a few thousand dollars to their name. They can keep some additional cash and their home and car if it’s in their spouse’s name, but generally no other property. That’s especially troubling for farmers, whose livelihood and families are often intertwined with their land.”

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

This article is a confusing muddle. Here’s the truth. Medicaid exempts the home and the farm business, including its capital and cash flow. That’s how farmers paid for LTC since 1965. That’s also why so few of them purchased LTC insurance. While estate recovery is a concern for some, it is easily avoided by a Medicaid planning attorney. The big LTC problem for farmers nowadays is getting access to any care as Medicaid-dependent nursing homes go out of business and care of any kind becomes difficult to find anywhere nearby. So more and more care falls on unpaid families and friends. The whole sad, worsening mess derives from government trying to help and ruining the LTC market.