12. March 2008 by Jon Moss.

In late 2006, the AARP completed a survey in which it was reported that nearly 60% of older Americans (age 45 and older) underestimate the cost of long-term care, overestimate the long-term care costs that Medicare and Medicaid will pay and misunderstood the specifics and scope of the services they will receive as part of a public program.

 The AARP results are troubling to many community and insurance industry leaders.  If people mistakenly believe that public programs will step in and cover long-term care, they won’t make arrangements for private care–and they may end up with no long-term care at all.

In a recent blog post, Rep Dan L. Burton, R-Indiana, called the AARP report findings “shocking,” and he encouraged future legislative change to help educate the public about long-term care policies and coverage options.

“With only 10% of seniors currently covered under private long-term care insurance policices to help cover long-term costs, the average cost of a private room in a nursing home running about $75,000 a year, and our nation’s baby boom generation beginning to retire, we are literally facing a huge health care train wreck,” Burton warns.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Humana Services, the number of recipients age 65 or older in need of long-term care may increase to 12 million by the year 2020.

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1. February 2008 by Jon Moss.

 Stephen Moses is coming to Chattanooga, TN on February 11 and 12 – and he’s bringing a silver bullet with him. It has nothing to do with guns or vampires, and everything to do with smart planning. Moses’ Silver Bullet is an Air Stream trailer purchased specifically for its attention-getting value in the 2008 National Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour he started last month. He’s living in the Silver Bullet while visiting all fifty states, hoping to raise awareness of a looming problem for the public, policy makers and legislators: how America will pay for the inevitable care needed by the baby boom generation as its members advance into old age. 

Moses is President of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform in Seattle, an advocacy group that promotes universal long-term care planning with privately-funded coverage as an alternative to depending on Medicaid or other “at-risk” federal programs. A former senior analyst for the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a former Medicaid state representative for the Health Care Financing Administration, Mr. Moses is recognized widely as one of the nation’s most articulate voices in the field of long-term care planning. While in Chattanooga, Moses will speak at a breakfast for state legislators on Monday, February 11, and at a free event that same day at 7 PM at Brainerd Baptist Church’s Brainerd Crossroads (BX) at 300 Brookfield Avenue. Consumers, senior service agencies, attorneys, CPAs and financial planners are invited to hear him at the BX. He is also scheduling newspaper, radio and television interviews. 

“The tour is an extension of what the Center for Long-Term Care Reform does every day, “says Moses. “It’s an on-site attempt to influence local media, politicians and policymakers to join forces and work more directly with and for the public. How can Medicaid be a safety net for the poor and the main LTC payor for nearly everyone else? Where will the money come from as boomers retire and draw down Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?” He said the Center also helps states curtail so-called “Medicaid estate planning” that artificially impoverishes middle class and affluent individuals in order to qualify them for benefits. His group encourages private insurance and home equity conversion (reverse mortgages) as alternatives to public welfare financing of long-term care. 

Moses has directed numerous studies for the federal government, state governments, and private think tanks on nursing home eligibility, asset transfer, estate recoveries and long-term care financing. He influenced the content and passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which discouraged Medicaid abuses and launched new tax benefits for individual LTC planning. He has published widely, testified before Congress and two-thirds of U.S. state legislatures, and is a frequent TV and radio talk show guest.

The Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour is sponsored locally by Lindsey & Associates, Inc., Long Term Care Insurance Specialists. For more information on Stephen Moses and his availability in Chattanooga, contact Gail Lindsey, MA, CLTC at 423-698-1113 or gail@lindseyassoicatesletc.com.

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