The “Fiscal Cliff” and Long Term Care

The “Fiscal Cliff” legislation everyone has been talking about that passed in the dead of night has some changes for LTC in America. Initially the PPACA health care bill had a provision to start a Federal LTC insurance program. However, it was completely unsustainable as it would accept everyone, healthy or not, and would be severely underfunded from the start. This was officially put to rest with the fiscal cliff legislation.
What the fiscal cliff legislation did was to create a 15 member commission to study the problem of LTC financing in America and has 6 months from its formation to come up with solutions that the House and Congress will be required to introduce as legislation. Look for more dependence on private LTC insurance in the future.
Recently the Wall Street Journal had an article about how China (also dealing with severe ageing population problems) is coping. It seems that children who do not visit and provide care for aging parents can be sued by the parents or penalized by the state.
Actually, about half of the states in the U.S. have filial responsibility laws that can force children to pay for parents’ LTC. Two states have already had successful lawsuits forcing children to do so.
All of this is really nothing more than a financial problem. LTC is expensive. Health care is expensive. LTC is more expensive than health care and much more of it will be needed as the baby boomers age. The government does not have the money to pay for either one for the majority of us, and is grasping at straws. Some solutions will be very painful.
I have a LTC insurance policy, purchased when I was only 52. That is about the time to investigate such insurance as there is a god chance you might be healthy enough to be able to purchase it. Have you investigated LTC insurance for youself? Or are you hoping for a government miracle and payment for everyone? Perhaps its time to contact The Long Term Care Guy at 920 884-3030 or [email protected] and schedule time to look into this.

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