These expenses could start to threaten these healthcare programs if the coverage doesn’t take off.
The latest reports about the number of people who are purchasing long term care insurance are revealing that if this trend continues, it could end up leading to a considerable amount of strain on the Medicaid and Medicare programs than they have faced in the past.
Many parts of the country see expenses greater than $100,000 per person for these services.
As this level of cost can rapidly deplete a family’s finances, it can rapidly bring them to the point that they qualify for Medicaid. At that point, it is the government that will pay for the services. Long term care insurance is the primary alternative to that strategy, but the coverage is not cheap and many people don’t feel that they can afford to buy it.
A study of the spend down patterns of Medicaid has shown that long term care insurance needs are growing.
These needs are growing both from the side of Medicaid and also for individuals and families. The reason is that, while there are a tremendous number of poorer households that are exhausting their financial resources and are qualifying for Medicaid, this is not always the case. The SCAN Foundation conducted a study that examined a quarter of a century of the way that Americans qualify for Medicaid in order to provide them with the coverage they would otherwise receive through long term care insurance.
The findings from the SCAN Foundation study showed that it will be very important for greater efforts to be implemented to encourage the separate purchase of long term care insurance in order to keep financial harm away from Medicaid and Medicare. Research has indicated that 70 percent of American residents will require a period or extended assistance during their lifetimes. The majority will occur later in life.
In order to take the first steps into resolving this issue, the Affordable Care Act does include a voluntary program for long term care insurance. However, as it is only a voluntary program, the majority of healthy and young individuals are not expected to take part in it. Unfortunately, without the participation of those individuals, only those who will make the largest number of claims will be signing up, keeping the costs way up. This has now lead to the elimination of the program, which could not be operated within reason. As of yet, no alternative has made its way forward.
