WA LTC Trust Act Take 2

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Long term care insurance.

What you need to know first of all, what is

long term care.

Long term care is many things to many people, but

the biggest thing you need to remember is that it

is a problem.

It is a huge problem and a problem that is

coming for you personally or someone.

You know, if it's not a problem now then it'll

probably be a problem for you in the future.

But why is it such a problem?

Well, because it costs so much generate.

Does this great study every year where they analyze the

average costs and the average cost of home health care

Across the country is $150 a day Assault living is

around $141 a day.

And a nursing home is about $290 a day.

Well that's great.

But what about our area here in Washington?

In the puget sound area?

The home health care average cost is 150 a day.

While assisted living is about to 13 a day.

Um I'm sorry $200 a day in the nursing home

is $350-$400 a day.

So it's significantly higher than the nationwide average here in

our area.

But who you know the question is does insurance work

because we know long term care insurance?

But does it work?

Well. Let's look at the numbers.

The N.

A. I.

C. Publishes the report in 2019 and a total of

almost $13 billion was paid out in 2019.

Across the country.

It's about 285,000 claims comes down to $124 per day

is the average claim amount.

But as we saw, even home health care costs $213

a day.

Up to $400 a day for for nursing home.

So, so the industry standard or the nationwide average is

significantly different.

But who's who, what, who are the people that are

making these claims?

There's a 69 chance of needing care if you're over

the age of 65.

So most of the claims are by people that are

over age 65.

Who is the largest payer of these of long-term care

total. So it was 13 almost 13 billion of private

insurance, long-term care claims.

But who is the largest payer?

It's Medicaid.

And look at this, this is this number is from

2017. And in total it was $235 billion long-term care.

It is a huge $235 billion dollar problem.

And you could see that the private long-term care insurance

was only accounted for four of that.

So in 2017 it was only 9.4 billion.

And now in 2019 that it grew to a $13

billion dollar problem.

So it is an absolutely huge problem that is breaking

the bank of our government and individually our pocketbook, it's

going through our wealth for our family that we've amassed.

And so that's the biggest thing you need to remember.

But Medicaid, let's just real quick.

What is Medicaid?

It is primarily a health coverage for low income adults

and it's administered by the states according to the federal

guidelines and it's funded jointly by states and the federal

government. You need to know that there are income and

asset limits.

If you ever need to go on Medicaid to pay

for long term care, there's what they call spend down

rules. We're not going to go into it.

You just need to know that it exists.

And this is why if you have income and assets

to protect, you need to ask yourself this question, how

much of your net worth do you want to protect

for your spouse or your heirs?

Well, the state of Washington is the first in this

a country to try and address this problem.

They passed the Washington long term Care Trust Act In

July of 2019 in an attempt to decrease the Medicaid

budget. It is a payroll tax that is .58 Or

58 cents for every $100 of your earning.

And this tax, it begins January 1st of 2022.

Now it will take 10 years to be fully vested

and and to be able to receive benefits for long

term care, you have to pay without a break for

five consecutive years or you have to pay your tax

for three of the last six years from the date

of application of benefits.

So I've I've read some articles where people think that

you're you're fully vested after five years are fully vested

after three years.

And that's just not the case.

That is only if you go on claim.

If you need long term care you have to have

paid three of the last six years without a break

for five consecutive years.

So the 10 years that's where if you're if you're

headed toward retirement right now and you're still earning wages

you you get a W.

Two and your age 62 you're planning to retire in

three years, you'll pay the tax for three years.

And unless you file a claim within six years Then

you won't ever receive benefits for this because you have

to be paid into it for 10 years to be

fully vested.

It does not cover people already retired and it doesn't

travel with you.

So if you retire, if you work for 15 years

and you pay tax this tax for 15 years and

then you want to retire in the state of Tennessee

or Florida or Arizona anywhere else.

It will not travel with you.

You will not be able to use the benefits.

What else do you need to know?

The benefits are paid in $100 unit.

Essential. That means $100 a day for one year.

So it's 3 36,500 lifetime maximum.

That's what you get for this tax.

Yeah. To qualify to go unclaimed for this, you need

help with three of the 10 80 s.

Now, the 10 ideals are consistent with Medicaid, So it's

medication management, personal hygiene, eating, toilet and transferring body care,

bathing, mobility, dressing, or cognitive impairment.

You need help with three of the 10th traditional long

term care insurance.

It's two ideals of six.

So there's a little bit different rules there, there's no

guarantee that your payroll tax will remain fixed, that it

won't be increased And just something to note that 45

of Washington residents could receive comparable coverage on the private

market for equal or less money.

Some important dates you need to know already mentioned that

this tax starts January one of 2022.

The as the law was written and signed into law,

there's an exemption allowed for people who already own long

term care insurance, december 31st 2022.

As long as you own a policy before that date,

you'll be able to opt out of the tax.

However, this house passed an amendment that changed the exemption

date, but the Senate chain did an amendment changing that

date to November 1 2021 this year.

And chances are very high that the house will Vote

on the Senate version and it will remain November 1

2022. So you have between now and November 1 2021,

sorry 2021 to own a long-term care insurance policy, you'll

be able to apply for an exemption and opt out

of that tax.

But you must own a policy before that date.

So it's a very important date to remember.

But what's the solution?

What can you do?

How do you get a policy?

Well, we can help, we have the best solution for

ltc shop dot com.

We are independent brokers and we represent all the top

companies and we can help you compare shop and compare

for the best policy for your situation.

We have a great policy, we call the recovery care

policy or a simplified issue long term care insurance policy.

This is primarily geared for employees that are aged 50-79

and that's for this specific policy age 50-79.

If you're an employee we have this policy for you

that you simply just answer health questions, there's no telephone

interview and they don't even pull medical records.

If you can answer no to the health questions you

qualify. So if you are in this age group, especially

if you're age 58-68 there in your working still in

your pain being paid wages and the tax will apply

to you.

You may not work for 10 full years.

If you're planning to retire within 10 years, you really

need to look at something.

You are in the difference with this, you are fully

vested from day one.

The state plan takes 10 full years to be fully

vested. You buy a private policy, you're fully vested from

day one.

It's portable.

You can use the benefits anywhere in the United States

or Canada.

So you don't have to stay in the state of

Washington after you retire.

There's a 15 day elimination period meaning you pay for

care yourself for 15 days.

We don't know what the state's plan will be.

There is still finalizing details like that.

Most traditional policies, there's like an average of 90 days

that you pay it for elimination period.

But this policy that simplified issues a 15 day elimination

period And it really helps you get into a better

facility, facilities that take Medicaid directly from the, from day

one, typically have a wait list and there's other facilities

that don't take Medicaid from day one.

Um Those don't typically have a wait list, but they're

going to want to see the private pay, which is

either cash out of pocket or you have an insurance

policy. Here's a simple chart that shows the tax.

If you're earning $100,000, your monthly tax will be $48.

And let's just say sorry about that.

You're female Age 50 costs you $37 a month for

the simplified issue.

If you're earning $100,000 in your female age 50, well

you're better off buying a private policy So we can

help people under age 50 as well.

So even though this plan that I was talking about

is for people over age 50, we can still help

you. If you're under age 50 we can help you

if you're under age 40 Even, which is typically uh,

people under age 40 typically aren't even looking at long-term

care insurance yet.

But with this tax, it's time to start looking at

it. And we can even help people under age 30,

there's very few companies that will ensure people under age

30 and we represent them as well, so we can

help you with that.

So I thank you very much for watching and click

on the links on this page to learn more or

fill out the form and we'll be glad to send

you some quotes.

Thanks.

WA LTC Trust Act Take 2

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