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Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

whitecoatinvestor.com

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Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#31

Post by toomuchtodo »

bradleyjg wrote: post #21
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #4

There are three things a nation needs to accept about universal health care: (1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it

It’s not a matter of acceptance. We can’t accept the cost of anything consistently growing at a rate faster than GDP. That’s just math, not ethics or political choice theory or anything else. Health care cost growth is going to slow one way or the another.

But growth is also going to slow due to demographics, and this is unavoidable. Are we going to prioritize caring for humans? Or line goes up? Because line goes up is going to hit the demographic wall eventually.

https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/dependency-and-dep...

https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/spring/summer-2018/demogra...

https://www.cato.org/commentary/clear-eyed-look-our-demograp...

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/Slides_London.pdf

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#32

Post by cowcity »

dayjah wrote: post #26
cowcity wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are perfectly conditioned to instinctively and aggressively deny all three. :(

Hey now. America is a broad spectrum of people — some of us are heretical and believe governments have a role in everyday life, some of us believe the opposite.

Nitpick all you want, but what I said is exactly right and you probably know that.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#33

Post by Synthetic7346 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #10
jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Delay, deny, defend --- this is the insurance industry's modus operandi. Insurance is the only industry where customers are the enemy.

People need to stop looking at it like this. Healthcare is a triangle. There are three players. You, Insurance, and Doctor. All three are adversaries and allies in different ways.

In reality the triangle is Doctors, Insurance, Hospitals, and you in the middle.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#34

Post by tiahura »

SoftTalker wrote: post #18
jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Delay, deny, defend --- this is the insurance industry's modus operandi. Insurance is the only industry where customers are the enemy.

I wrote a longer response but deleted it as it was just a personal anecdote. Suffice it to say I'll never buy LTC insurance or participate in any elder care such as "assisted living" or "nursing care." It's all (IMO) engineered to drain old people of their assets before they die. Providing care is nowhere on the list of motivations of anyone involved.

I disagree. Getting a $3800/mo payment for up to 3 years sure was nice when I had to put mom in a $4000/mo assisted living facility.

There’s a reason companies got away from offering these policies, they were losing money on them.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#35

Post by mixmastamyk »

wwweston wrote: post #5
jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Delay, deny, defend --- this is the insurance industry's modus operandi. Insurance is the only industry where customers are the enemy.

The crucial understanding is that incentives are cross aligned because the product is risk coverage. The more immediate/pressing your need for risk coverage, the worse it is for them to sell it to you. The less you need it, the better it is for them to sell it to you and the worse for you to buy it. Pretty different than ice cream or cars or housing. Too many people just think “oh corporate greed” without thinking ab…

Yes indeed. Part of the problem is having “insurance” draining part of the resources. Long term care means it isn’t an “accident,” but a constant recurring cost. Saving the money up front, producing income, and paying directly for what you need is often a better strategy.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#36

Post by SoftTalker »

tiahura wrote: post #34
SoftTalker wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a longer response but deleted it as it was just a personal anecdote. Suffice it to say I'll never buy LTC insurance or participate in any elder care such as "assisted living" or "nursing care." It's all (IMO) engineered to drain old people of their assets before they die. Providing care is nowhere on the list of motivations of anyone involved.

I disagree. Getting a $3800/mo payment for up to 3 years sure was nice when I had to put mom in a $4000/mo assisted living facility. There’s a reason companies got away from offering these policies, they were losing money on them.

In my case they never paid. According to the lawyers I had involved, this isn't uncommon.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#38

Post by throwawayqqq11 »

gosub100 wrote: post #23
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #4

There are three things a nation needs to accept about universal health care: (1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it

Computers and software used to be extremely expensive about 30 years ago, yet private industry advanced the state of the art and brought the prices down. There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ? The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the reg…

Without relgulation, the profit seekers would remain in power and the same applies to more medical staff.

The insurance system is a profit seeking institution, that functions as intended. Why dont you talk about that BURNING aspect?

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#39

Post by tiahura »

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #4

There are three things a nation needs to accept about universal health care: (1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it

This isn’t about health care. Please read the article.

Re: Financial lessons from my family's experience with long-term care insurance

#40

Post by Spooky23 »

olddustytrail wrote: post #14
gruez wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The government’s gotta run it But there are plenty of countries with functioning healthcare systems that are private? The Swiss, for instance. Moreover depending on what counts as "government’s gotta run it" (paying for it? administering it? actually providing care?) you can argue that the German or even Canadian systems aren't government run, at least to some degree.

So why don't we see Republican Americans advocating to adopt the Swiss system which provides universal coverage at a lower per capita cost?

Obamacare was a replica of Romneycare, which was implemented in Massachusetts. It was the republican approach of leveraging private enterprise and encouraging consolidated medical networks.

The difference now is the republicans have changed, and nuanced issues are just not welcome on the platform of a party following a cult of personality.

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