Cantissimo Senior Living Blog

As noted in a previous Cantissimo Senior Living blog post, Getting Started with Medicare, Original Medicare consists of Part A and Part B. This blog post focuses on Part A, which covers inpatient hospital stays and some other services.

Part A (Hospital Insurance) helps cover:

Most Americans reaching age 65 achieve a significant milestone: Medicare eligibility. Launched in 1965, Medicare is a national health insurance program created and administered by the U.S. government and funded primarily via payroll taxes. Prior to its inception, over half of Americans, 65 or older, had no health insurance.

The program started with coverage for hospital stays (Part A) and other medical expenses like doctor fees (Part B). These two parts, known as "Original Medicare," operate as a "fee-for-service" system where a provider (e.g., hospital or doctor) gets paid for each service delivered.

Planning for long-term care expenses seems to involve a lot of wishful thinking for many. As noted in another Cantissimo Senior Living blog post, a survey found that about half of respondents said they had done little or no planning for these needs.

One example of wishful thinking is that government programs like Medicare or Medicaid will pay long-term care expenses.

Among the many ways of paying for long-term care, life insurance and annuities have been growing in popularity.

Life Insurance

In its original form, life insurance was intended only to pay beneficiaries upon the death of the insured. Since its inception, however, life insurance has evolved to include many additional options. Some of these options can help pay for long-term care.

When it comes to preparing for retirement, most consumers have only a vague idea about planning for potential long-term care expenses. Yet, well over half of Americans 65 or older will eventually require some form of long-term care.

There are multiple ways to pay for long-term care. However, the potentially enormous costs could quickly exhaust one's assets. An attractive alternative for managing this considerable risk could be long-term care insurance (LTCI).

The majority (76%) of those over 50 say they would prefer to continue living in their own home as long as they can. However, this is not always possible, and other senior living options like assisted living may need to be considered. Yet, such long-term care options can be costly. For instance, one year of assisted living can cost over $50,000. If memory care or skilled nursing is required, the annual cost can be twice as much.

Unless one has long-term care insurance or can qualify for Medicaid, most people will need to tap all their assets, to pay for long-term care. This may include the equity in one's home.

There are four ways to leverage home equity to finance long term care:

Most of us have heard of a Health Savings Account (HSA), but many don't understand the important details about these accounts.

HSAs were intended to provide a way for Americans to save money for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses before meeting the deductible of a high deductible health plan (HDHP). In fact, an individual or family must have an HDHP to open an HSA.

HSAs were primarily intended to soften the financial burden of healthcare expenses for HDHP account holders of all age groups. However, an HSA can be particularly advantageous in paying for long-term care expenses at age 65 or over.

Retirement checklists abound across the internet. Most provide wisdom on planning for a secure financial future. Saving enough, choosing appropriate investments, and eliminating debt are common recommendations. However, there is more to retirement than pure pocketbook considerations. Listed below are some retirement planning ideas that most checklists don't mention.

I'll never forget the look on my wife's face.

I had just returned from a September business trip to headquarters, where I told my boss I was retiring. Over the prior twelve months, my wife and I talked about the best time for me to retire after a 40 year career.

In my mind, the conversation had gone from "maybe" to "for sure" and from "later" to "sooner." Yet, when I casually said, "Well, I pulled the trigger. I'm officially done on December 31!" my wife was stunned. "What?! Are you kidding?" she sputtered. "I had no idea you were going to do it now!".

It was a classic example of a couple with differing retirement expectations. Unless properly addressed, such differences can make a retirement dream into a nightmare.

Linda Malys Yore is an influencer with a blog called “Linda On The Run”, where she writes and inspires others about travel, fitness, vegan cooking, and health. After starting her blog in 2018, she began using Instagram and Facebook as additional platforms to share her stories. Today, Linda has 73,000 followers on Instagram. Experience Beyond Measure correspondent Mike Lawson recently interviewed Linda about her transition from retirement to an influencer.