THE FORTY NINE DOLLAR PER MONTH LONG TERM CARE SOLUTION

For the last eight years my associates and I have been working to resolve one of the most challenging problems facing the United States and according to the G20 Summit, a world wide problem that most people will face. It is a fact that life expectancy has increased dramatically and that with that phenomenon comes the problem of caring for millions of people in retirement. The latest statistics I read were life expectancy in the United States for men is eighty seven and a half years and for women it is eighty nine and a half years of age. There are eighty million "Baby Boomerrs" alone in the US that are stretching the current systems of health care and retirement income to its limits. Our solution actually addresses both problems and in so doing improves the quality of life for retirees and future retirees. The systems in place today are all flawed and fail to resolve the problem due to its magnitude and unfortunately under reported status. You do not hear from the media how senior citizens are retiring at the poverty level and facing their "Golden Years" in a less than glamorous way. And that if they reach the age of sixty five years of age, they have a seventy percent chance of needing long term care. That care often is not the most desirable form of care and yet the retiree has no choice in the matter. The insurance industry has addressed this problem in the traditional risk reduction method of traditional insurance policies and that has failed as the cost of care has escalated far greater than insurance companies could afford to increase premiums. The average stay in a skilled care facility, aka nursing home, is ninety seven thousand dollars a year. The average cost for an assisted living facility is thirty seven thousand dollars a year or greater, depending on the level of care needed. There are senior living facilities that combine skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and senior living and generally require an admission "buy in" in excess of one million dollars that is not transferable at death, and well beyond the reach of the average retiree in the US. And the cost for home health care, the most desirable form of care, is between twenty and thirty dollars an hour. That figure does not include supplies and medical care. Besides the affordability factor, a more serious problem is the health issues associated with skilled care facilities and assisted living facilities. The MRSA infection and C Diff Disease, aka "the Nursing Home Disease" are rampant in these facilities where numerous ill patients are congregated with a relatively small number of care providers. The percentage of people actually carrying traditional long Term Care insurance to meet these expenses is between six percent and eight percent of the population and the rest are self pay or at the mercy of the government. Consequently, most insurance companies are looking to exit this market or approach it with "hybrid products". Hybrids may work for the automobile industry but as a solution for Long Term care they fail, since they are draining resources from a retirement source that is drastically underfunded, basically "robbing Peter to pay Paul", and Peter is broke, if you get my drift. The dismal statistics regarding the amount of money US citizens have saved for retirement is a serious problem facing almost every citizen, most of them will retire at or below the poverty level. draining revenue from that source makes absolutely no sense to me. Today the target amount of retirement revenue needed to retire with dignity is now two million dollars and of that amount financial advisers are recommending only taking two percent per year for expenses in retirement. that is well beyond the reach of most people today. The prevailing attitude of "live for today, and don't worry about tomorrow", is the mantra of most people and the problem comes to roost when they reach retirement age, and they are completely unprepared. The average hard working citizen in the US thinks that since they have paid their hard earned money for decades into Social Security and Medicare, that they do not have to worry about retirement and health care in their "Golden Years". That misconception is so far from the truth, yet it is still the mainstream belief today. Social Security was only meant to pay a portion of the retirement expenses and today it is less than half the money needed to "retire with dignity". In most cases, those that rely on Social security alone will enter retirement subsisting at or below the poverty level. And that is no way to spend your final years of life in the richest country in the world, after decades of hard work. The misconception that Medicare will pay all your health care costs in retirement can also be a rude awakening for retirees. There are significant expenses that the Medicare beneficiary must pay including Part A costs, supplemental premiums, Part D costs, copays, coinsurance, "doughnut holes", dental and vision expenses, out of network costs and so on. The biggest misconception by retirees is that Medicare will pay for Long Term Care, and that is only true in a very small number of situations with unusual circumstances. The rest of the time the manners of payment for Long term Care is self pay, insurance pay or Medicaid. In order to qualify for Medicare you must be financially indigent, living below the poverty level. There are some minor exceptions with the Partnership rulings, but for the most part you are at the mercy of a state government agency. The state determines where you will go for your long term Care, not you." And some care facilities are so bad we would not send our dogs there", per my associate's visits. My associates and I actually stayed in skilled care facilities and assisted living facilities for several months, not as patients but as visitors, twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. We befriended staff and management and asked questions and observed the day to day operations. We have volumes of data compiled. We used this data to formulate the "Forty Nine Dollar A Month Solution For long Term Care". From our eight years of work this appeared to be the only viable solution. The insurance companies will not be able to repackage policies to solve the problem and state governments are so far over their head in debt, that some states like Illinois, can not even pay its employees. Other states like Michigan and Arizona, just to name a few, have severely underfunded state employee pension plans that will require a federal "bail out" to stay solvent, if that is even possible with the federal debt approaching twenty trillion dollars or one hundred twenty thousand dollars for every man woman and child in the country. Scary. I posted the statistics on my LinkedIn profile for anyone who wants to verify the actual numbers. The point being the government is in no position to solve the dilemma of caring for seniors in need of long term care, in a manner that is suitable for everyone involved, and it is not fair to burden the government or the insurance companies with this problem. They have other problems that are within their capacity to resolve, and they should not be burdened with this problem. They can dedicate resources to other pressing issues facing the country today. Our solution not only solves the problem of affordable long term care for seniors but also eliminates the MRSA  infection and the C Diff disease, aka "The Nursing Home Disease". Our program may even put the "Affordable" back into the Obama Care, Affordable Care Act, since we would eliminate one of its biggest financial drains. I will include additional information regarding our "Forty Nine Dollar Long Term Care Solution" in my future posts. I am currently pursuing grants and venture capital to launch our program and at that time we will have opportunities for new associates who want to make a difference and make the world a better place.