“Opinion: The imperative of equality in long-term care”

“Opinion: The imperative of equality in long-term care,” by Kathleen D. Hayes and Anna Doroghazi, CTPost

Quote:

“As we age, long-term care needs threaten the financial stability we aim to achieve. To cover the exorbitant costs of care, many couples turn to Medicaid Title 19.  … Without financial protections in place, families are forced into a mad spending dash, purchasing furniture; renovating the home; purchasing prepaid funerals — in essence, throwing money out the window for the sake of expediting eligibility for vital supports and services. The same vital supports and services that upper middle-class families access with $137,400 of assets safely secured.”

 

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

I’ve made the point many times before. Medicaid LTC benefits are easier for the middle class to get than the poor. But look how even the poor are unloading their meager wealth to qualify. They buy exempt assets they don’t really need. The solution is not to increase the wealth people can keep while accessing Medicaid, as these writers propose, but rather to strengthen, enforce and publicize the consequences of ignoring long-term care until you need it and your heirs turn to public welfare for relief. And people still wonder why so few purchase LTC insurance.