I don't have a need for it (yet) but I'm curious if anyone has any personal experience.

John Oliver did a piece on it. Some real horror scenarios. https://slate.com/culture/2021...iving-alligator.html The lack of oversight is sad.

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
I don't have a need for it (yet) but I'm curious if anyone has any personal experience.

John Oliver did a piece on it. Some real horror scenarios. https://slate.com/culture/2021...iving-alligator.html The lack of oversight is sad.

The Joint Commission surveys them, they could use more support.

Don't know what you're looking to hear.

Back in Nov '12 I had near death gut problems.
21 day in a coma, 5 weeks total in the hosp.
Then 9 more weeks in a f'g N/H. 14 weeks out in all. Then couldn't get over it and had to go thru the surgery again to get it finished up.

No way I want to end up in another one. I'd much
rather eat a .38 than go back into a N/H.

Needed pain pills. Ring the bell 5 min til time:
"It's not time yet", then the bitches wouldn't show up and when they did, they'd sneak in and turn the light off. Then claim I was asleep. My ass! Just got tired of watching the door for the pill lady to show up that never did.

6 weeks of that crap before my belly was healed up enough to get out of bed again. I really didn't care if I lived or not all that time.

Told my sis a few years later: "I know my life would have been a hell of a lot easier if they
had pulled the plug!"

You'd be much much happier to just die at home than go thru a nursing home. I'd never wish that on anyone.

Does this answer your questions?

George

I think it very much depends on the facility. Generalization is hard. What is not hard to generalize is the cost. It is expensive. The older long term care insurance products were essentially "use it or lose it" policies. In other words, if you paid for the policy and never needed the coverage, you were simply out the cost of purchasing the coverage. Now they have hybrid policies. The hybrid policies function like a life insurance product if you never need the long term care benefit and pay a death benefit. If you need the long term care benefit the policies typically will pay four or five times the policy cost in benefits. Many have inflation riders that increase the policy benefit with inflation. The downside is that you generally have to purchase the policy in a lump sum up front. That said, long term care runs roughly $10,000+/month and is not something to be taken lightly given longer life expectancies.

Then there's the question of whether your insurer will still be solvent when the time comes. I wonder how many insurers will survive.

. . . frankly I worry way less about the solvency of an insurance company like Nationwide, an AM Best A+ rated insurance company that has been around since 1925, than I do about a $1 million hit to my portfolio as a result of a long term stay in a skilled nursing facility.

I am also curious as the prices are so high; what happens to our elders when the money runs out? Do they put them out on the street?, etc. I REALLY would like to know.

The last time I was around that situation was when my grandfather was in a facility in Evansville, Indiana. It was very sad the number of occupants, normally women, who had outlived all their family and friends, had no visitors. I don't know who paid the bills.

...and this was a nice place. They took good care of my grandfather. They closed three years ago. https://www.indianalandmarks.o...ded-for-new-service/

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I am also curious as the prices are so high; what happens to our elders when the money runs out? Do they put them out on the street?, etc. I REALLY would like to know.

I believe the Fed takes over.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I am also curious as the prices are so high; what happens to our elders when the money runs out? Do they put them out on the street?, etc. I REALLY would like to know.

My mother lived in one which was owned and operated by a church. Those who ran out of money were moved from the nicer little apartments to lesser digs but were not put out in the snow, or fed kitchen scraps.

The facility had independent living arrangements (little cottages with an attached garage) and progressively moved people from there to assisted living, to skilled nursing. It was not cheap but it was decent care.

It pays to find out about these things before putting your life savings into the upfront price of entry.
You only get to spend your life savings once, at that age.

I may have an answer for some of your questions on long term care. If you are on private pay of your own money then you get the same care as the people which who go on the Medicaid care which is paid for by the state. Hospice will come into the picture when it looks like their isn't much time to live. I went thru all of this with my dad about 20 years back. He was not a happy camper at the NH, but we couldn't please him so the Dr requested him to be placed in the NH.

Now here is the story I will try to place things in a sequence. After mother died my dad was having calls from several women and wanting him to get married. May brothers and I decided to get an IRREVOLABLE TRUST written up to protect his assets and help me take care of the NH account. It wasn't too hard to get my father to sign the papers and it took 12 pages of Lawyer work to get this done ($5,000 fee). Get someone you trust to help you make the decisions .

The NH charged him for 3+ years and our cost was about $140.000 out of his estate trust acct. It took a lot of time to keep records of his medical expenses and every penny had to be accounted for in the IRREVOLABLE TRUST. My father had an extra insurance medical policy and the Medicare govt. policy. That cost was $2400 a year. Some of the family was in the waiting room and a man came up and set down and started talking to us. He was a head shrinker Dr. and the NH thought my dad needed a Dr. so they could keep him of drugs so he wouldn't be too much trouble to handle him. I had full medical documents for him, but didn't know he was being charged to the fee until his private insurance refused to pay the $5,500
bill and I called the Dr and he said I wasn't supposed to get that bill. He was sending the aids around to do his work and we refused to pay him. You will have to watch everything or you will be charged extra for nothing done.

I had to have an Accountant file papers each year and had to wait almost a yr before the final tax papers were sent to IRS. Then the trust was closed and the money had to be sent to the members of our family.

This is not an easy job for anyone to take on in a family, but my wife and I did what was asked of us before the trust was written up. So get your papers in order before a judge has to decide what can be done for your estate.

An elderly lady and her really old mother lived near me while growing up. She worked a minimum wage job as a bank teller in the town's small bank. Her and her mother split one piece of bacon each day for breakfast with their one egg apiece. Never married. Saved her money all her life. Had saved a bit over 400k. N/H went through that. Kept treating her till she died. State then auctioned off all of her personal belongings, house, property, seized all bank accounts with her name, all to go toward paying the state back for its expenses.

My neighbor about 20 years ago decided to pass over his property to my son as we were adjoining properties + friends. + he knew he was dying. Thank God that Dave took a bit of time to die (sorry, truth time) but as he was ill with alzehimers + emphashema then hisdirector of assistance was detracted by 5 years so that someone dying could not pass over their property to some one else = "cheat" the tax man. Oh those C.S. ers don't like to lose + it has been a nightmare for my son (+ me) ever since.