CBO has issued a reminder of the need to cut Medicare spending. Health care programs are quickly outgrowing their historical share of the federal budget, CBO said, and the cost of those programs will only grow faster as more baby boomers reach retirement and underlying health care costs continue to soar. CBO's latest figures confirm what Republicans and Democrats acknowledge only selectively —that health care is a huge part of what's driving federal spending and debt. Health care programs are eating up an ever-increasing share of the economy, while tax revenues and other domestic spending are holding relatively steady, CBO…
For too long, too many hard working Americans paid the price for policies that handed free rein to insurance companies and put barriers between patients and their doctors. The Affordable Care Act gives hard-working families the security they deserve. The new health care law forces insurance companies to play by the rules, prohibiting them from dropping your coverage if you get sick, billing you into bankruptcy because of an annual or lifetime limit, or, soon, discriminating against anyone with a pre-existing condition. And it includes substantial new benefits for Americans living with disabilities.If you’re living with a disability, private health…
The cost of long-term care increased significantly, according to the 2012 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, and Home Care Costs. Private room nursing home rates jumped 3.8 percent to $90,520 a year or $248 a day, while assisted living facility costs rose 2.1 percent on average to $42,600 a year or $3,550 a month. The average cost of homemaker/companions increased by 5.3 percent to $20 per hour. The news wasn't all about increases, however. The cost of adult day care services remained the same as last year at $70 per day and the average cost of…
In an ideal world, you will retire and enjoy many years fulfilling your dreams and spending time with those you love the most. Your retirement years can be some of the happiest and most enjoyable years of your life. But while we all hope for the best outcome possible, it may be prudent for you to plan for the possibility that life may deal you a difficult hand. Your retirement plan should address the very real possibility that a chronic illness could strike – whether it’s you, your spouse or another loved one that’s affected. For many retirees, there is…
While President Obama's re-election means Medicare and Medicaid as we know them will likely be preserved at least for the next four years, many challenges are still ahead. One of the biggest outcomes of the election is that the Affordable Care Act (ACA – a.k.a. "Obamacare"), which candidate Mitt Romney had promised to repeal, will almost certainly remain as law and be fully implemented. The law is already beginning to close the gap in Medicare’s prescription drug coverage known as the "doughnut hole," as well as providing free preventative care for Medicare recipients. The ACA also included a number…
Although there has been no official pronouncement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, we think we know what next year’s spousal impoverishment thresholds will be for Medicaid long-term care applicants. The annual adjustments to the figures are based on the consumer price index for urban consumers for the September prior to the year in question, in this case September 2012, a figure that was just released. Pennsylvania attorney the results in his blog. Marshall cautions that his projections may differ slightly from CMS’s ultimate figures if the agency rounds differently, but we feel certain that the figures are…
In a major change in Medicare policy, the Obama administration has provisionally agreed to end Medicare’s longstanding practice of requiring that beneficiaries with chronic conditions and disabilities show a likelihood of improvement in order to receive coverage of skilled care and therapy services. The policy shift will affect beneficiaries with conditions like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, heart disease, and stroke. For decades, home health agencies and nursing homes that contract with Medicare have routinely terminated the Medicare coverage of a beneficiary who has stopped improving, even though nothing in the Medicare…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholds a district court ruling that Connecticut cannot treat the income stream from an annuity as an available asset for the purposes of Medicaid eligibility. Lopes v. Dept. of Social Services (2nd Cir., No. 10-3741-cv, Oct. 2, 2012). After John Lopes moved to a nursing home, his wife, Amelia, purchased an annuity. She received a letter from the annuity company stating that no part of the annuity was assignable, including periodic payments. Mr. Lopes applied for Medicaid. The state identified a potential buyer of the annuity's income stream and directed Mrs. Lopes to…
In the past, as many as one in four seniors went without a prescription every year because they couldn’t afford it. To help these seniors, the law provides relief for people in the donut hole – the ones with the highest prescription drug costs. In 2010 and 2011, over 5.1 million seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare saved over $3.1 billion on prescription drugs thanks to the Affordable Care Act. These savings include a one-time $250 rebate check to seniors who fell into the prescription drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole” in 2010, and a 50 percent…
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