To start, a care plan must be signed off on by a doctor, and the home health agency you’ve selected must be Medicare-credited. In addition, the doctor must certify that you or your loved one is “homebound.”

If you work for a large corporation, chances are the health care part of your retirement package looks a heck-of-a-lot better than a lot of workers employed by a small to-medium size business. Those fortunate enough to have a health package may enjoy a range of bennies, from low medical premiums and extras like dental, hearing aids as well as coverage for eyewear.

To get an idea of just how those employer insurance programs or retiree insurance benefits have withstood the test of uncertain economic times, about 66 percent of retirees were receiving those nice health-care packages back in 1988, compared to only 25% today.

Medical costs will continue its upward trend in retirement.

It’s a depressing fact, but a gloomy forecast looms over the retiree’s Social Security income. In fact, such costs are sure to devour the “majority of retirees Social Security income.”

Are you 66 and planning to retire this year? You might be well served to either work longer or take a part-time job to help pay for health care costs. Surprisingly, notes a new report in the Wall Street Journal, those anticipated medical costs might very well eat up about 67% of a retiree’s benefit in those Golden Years.

If you’re ten years younger and looking to retire ten-years-from-now, count on your medical costs to take away about 90% of your Social Security income in your lifetime.

A simple reason…

Retirees on Social Security grapple with the ever-rising costs of Medicare premiums and skyrocketing medical costs, keeping them on a treadmill of never reaching parity with these costs. But it’s not surprising, given the fact that Social Security’s annual increases are averaging a meager 2%—that’s the current rate of inflation.

But according to Healthview founder, Ron Mastrogiovanni, medical costs are seeing increases from 5% to 7% annually. Unfortunately, those increases did not factor in that Elephant in the Room: long-term care.

Medicare will cover some home health services.

Family caregivers are not only providing for loved ones in time of need, but, ironically, their ‘service’ helps subsidize the Medicare system to the tune of $375 billion annually, according to an Indiana University report,

If you are over 50 years of age and care for a loved one, you are among the 10 million who do. Amazingly, this number has “tripled over the past 15 years,” as noted by a study that included the National Alliance for Caregiving.

“What can Medicare do for my loved one who needs home care?”

But the Medicare program does pick up the following home care costs, including, but not limited to…

— Intermittent skilled nursing care

— Physical therapy, including speech-language pathology services.

— Continued occupational services

Medicare does not pay for…

— 24-hour care at home

— Meals delivered to the home

— On-site homemaker services

— Personal care

What you need for determination…

For starters, a care plan must be signed off on by a doctor, and the home health agency you’ve selected must be Medicare-credited. In addition, the doctor must certify that you or your loved one is “homebound.”

Home health services include other choices.

Depending on where you live, other services can provide for this care, such as medical social services, part-time/intermittent home health aide services. What’s more, the cost of in-home medical supplies and durable medical equipment (walker, wheelchair) and injectable osteoporosis drugs.

Proper estate planning with an experienced elder care attorney, like Christopher J. Berry, can help you better understand the importance of setting aside funds for a long-term care policy; establishing a trust to provide continuity of your assets; creating a power-of-attorney for use if you are incapable of making your own financial and health decisions.

Contact us to learn more.

The post Medicare does pick up some home care costs; best bet is a long-term care policy. appeared first on Estate Planning Lawyers | Elder Law Attorneys | Brighton | Novi | Livonia Elder Law Attorneys.

The Elder Care Firm can help you manage the cost of long-term-care.

Long-term-care rates continue to increase, leaving many policyholders at a loss.

There is a growing gap in health-care coverage that is putting a number of Michiganders at a loss. Rob and Katherine Deane believed they were doing the responsible thing when they purchased insurance policies to provide care in their later years. But last year the experienced rate increases on both of their long-term-care policies, insurance plans that pay for nursing homes or in-home care.

Manulife Financial Corp.’s John Hancock unit informed Mrs. Deane that the premium on her 10-year-old policy would increase 77% to $6,406 a year. Mr. Deane’s insurer, Unum Group, raised his premium by 25%.

(Related: Health Insurance Scams On The Rise)

After making a fuss, Hancock reduce Mrs. Deane’s rate to 46%. In trade, she agreed to shrink the policy’s benefit period to six years from 10.

The long-term insurance industry is shrinking, premiums are soaring and there is no relief on the horizon. Meanwhile, government safety-net programs, pressured by cost cuts, are preparing for the demand from more of the 77 million aging baby boomers.

Granted, Obamacare is intended to provide insurance for millions of Americans, but his administration abandoned its effort to provide affordable long-term care, ruling it was too expensive.

(Related: Medicaid expansion bill will benefit all in state, Snyder says)

As is, Medicare only pays for short stays in nursing home or in-home care under limited conditions. Generally, seniors who need care have to burn through their savings to cover the cost. It takes being impoverished for Medicaid to pay for a basic level of care.

For decades insurers have sold long-term-care policies, but they vastly underestimated how quickly medical costs would rise, and the number of seniors who would use the benefits. As a result, insurance premiums were underpriced. And worse, some insurers knowingly charged too little at first with the plan to increase premiums later, says Joseph M. Belth, editor of the Insurance Forum newsletter and professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana University.

Five of the 10 largest insurance providers, including MetLife Inc., Prudential Financial Inc. and Unum have curtly reduced or discontinued sales since 2010, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Only a dozen or so companies still sell a significant number of policies, down from close to 100 a decade ago.

(Related: Caregiver Burnout)

Michigan is one of the many states that has adopted “rate stabilization” laws to tighten oversight to reduce the potential of future rate increases by requiring a more accurate initial pricing of policies.

Rate increases are forcing policyholders to dig into their savings, allocate from elsewhere, or drop their coverage. As a result, healthier policyholders may get off the train while sicker, more expensive customers stay aboard.

A number of insurance agents and financial planners are encouraging clients to employ a new “hybrid” coverage: life insurance with a rider providing long-term-care benefits. This allows the policyholder to leave something to heirs even if the long-term-care benefits don’t get tapped.

The downside is that the long-term-care benefits are often less generous than those in conventional policies, and policyholders have to write one large check upfront to get the coverage, versus paying premiums each year.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/long-term-care-insurance-leaves-030300000.html

Christopher J. Berry is a Michigan elder law attorney Dedicated to helping seniors, veterans and their families navigate the long-term care maze. To learn more visit http://www.michiganelderlawattorney.com/ or call 248.481.4000