The move by New Jersey to strip workers of their previous benefits will save the state approximately $132 billion over the next 30 years.  But many argue that the state is fixing the problem by hurting those who have worked hard their entire lives for their state.  What do you think?  Have union’s become out of control and it’s time to reign them back in to help fix budget problems?  Or is this a case of the working class having to bear the brunt of a broken system?

Read more here in the article, “New Jersey Legislature Moves to Cut Benefits for Public Workers.”

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Richard Verone had struggled with a ruptured disk, a growth on his chest and problem with his left foot.  After being laid off from his job of 17 years and working part time jobs that did not offer health insurance, Verone felt he had run out of options.  So he walked into a bank, told the teller he was robbing them for $1 and then waited in the corner until the police came to arrest him.  His entire plan was built on the hope of being sent to prison for three years – enough time to get his needed surgery and a release date that will coincide with his ability to collect Social Security.

Is this absolutely insane or is this what America’s healthcare system is coming to?  So broken, that a person has to break the law just to get the care they need?

Why is this?  Why are the drugs that are sometimes the only option for a patient, so expensive that many could never afford them?  Private insurance companies blame the drug makers for making the medicine too expensive.  Drug makers blame the private insurance companies for creating high co payments on their drugs.  In an article posted by the Associated Press, one senior who had to find alternative measures when she could not afford her medications described the situation as this, “After you’ve worked all your life, you get something catastrophic and you run into news like your drugs are going to cost $2,400.”  Have you or anyone you know run into problems with the cost of medication on Medicare? What, if anything, were you able to do to get these drugs?

Read the full article, Seniors Face Medicare Cost Barrier For Cancer Meds,” here.

Have a question about Medicare Supplemental Insurance?  Ask here.

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What’s the best way for seniors to prepare for their older years?  Whether you have children or not, planning is key.  Making sure you have insurance,  establishing an estate plan, taking the steps to create a close group of friends that you can rely on and even setting up automatic bill payment will help you prepare.

Read the full article, “Aging Without Children,” here.

Need Long Term Care Insurance?  Get more information here.

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COBRA is the obvious answer of course, but COBRA requires that you be able to afford such coverage, that your previous employer offers a COBRA program, and for that matter, that your previous employer remains in business (not a guarantee in these uncertain times).  If COBRA’s not an option, there are other possibilities that recommend themselves, solutions that range from a part time job to qualify for health care benefits, to unofficial risk-pooling systems of insurance or PCIPs.

• Read “How to get Retiree Health Insurance before age 65″ at Yahoo news
• Use the NewRetirement Retirement Calculator to determine the ultimate affordability of your health insurance plans.
• Consider supplements to Medicare Insurance.

Medical Deductions: Few people can make medical deductions when they are younger, but due to increased medical expenses and decreased income, many more seniors are eligible.  If your allowable medical expenses are greater than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, then the expenses are deductible.

What is a Deductable Medical Expense?: Supplemental health insurance premiums, prescription drug bills, costs of wheelchairs, dentures, long term care insurance premiums and many other health related costs are deductible.  A complete list is available from the IRS.

Tax Credits: Adults 65 and older may qualify for a special tax credit.  You can learn more from the I.R.S.

Real Estate Credits: Many states offer home-owning seniors a partial rebate on real estate taxes. Check with your state’s tax agency about availability of this credit.

Free Help with Taxes: AARP Tax-Aide offers free assistance to seniors on federal and state tax returns.

• Read the full article: “A Few Tax Tips for the Elderly” by Patrick Egan in the New York Times
• Talk with an Insurer to Make Sure You Have the Best Supplemental Health Insurance
• Find the Right Financial Advisor for You

Caregiving and receiving care also have critical retirement planning consequences.  Women, in particular, often sacrifice their own retirement savings in order to care for a loved one.

What is Your Plan for Long Term Care – for Yourself? For Family Members?

• Read this article
• Talk with a Financial Advisor About Options for Protecting Yourself or Family
• Explore Long Term Care Insurance

Insurance is designed to protect you from unexpected tragedies that
would otherwise wreak devastation to your finances. Unfortunately, with
one type of insurance that older investors have increasingly relied on
for financial security, the insurance companies that offer it are the
ones suffering financial devastation — and they’re doing their best to
pass the costs on to you.

For many, long-term-care insurance
is must-have protection for their retirement nest eggs. But just as
increasing medical costs have forced health insurance premium increases
and put programs like Medicare under the threat of long-term insolvency,
the insurance companies that offer long-term-care coverage also have to
deal with changing conditions in the industry that are crushing their
profits.

Why you need it
Many people assume that once they
retire, Medicare will pick up the tab for all of their medical
expenses. But even with a good Medicare supplemental insurance policy,
many needs that seniors have aren’t covered in full. With those services
that aren’t deemed medically necessary, including assistance in taking
care of basic personal needs, you can’t expect Medicare to cover the
tab.

That’s where long-term-care insurance comes in. Long-term-care
policies often provide benefits to pay not just for traditional
facilities like nursing homes but also for relatively new innovations
like home health care and assisted living facilities. Given that care can cost hundreds of dollars per day in some areas, paying relatively modest premiums can save you a fortune later on.

A big mistake by insurers
The problem that
long-term-care insurance is facing now is that insurance companies
underestimated the amount of money they’d have to pay out on
long-term-care policies. Several factors combined to create the
shortfall, including higher medical costs and an increasing number of
claims, as well as low interest rates that have reduced investment income for insurance companies.

As a result, Manulife Financial‘s (NYSE: MFC) John Hancock division is asking for rate increases of 40%, while Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW) wants an 18% increase for some of its long-term policies. MetLife (NYSE: MET) has taken the even more dramatic step of no longer marketing new long-term-care policies.

Read more of this article.

The first baby boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare
Jan. 1, and many fear the program’s obituary will be written before
their own.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that baby
boomers believe by a ratio of 2-to-1 they won’t be able to rely on the
giant health insurance plan throughout their retirement.

The boomers took a running dive into adolescence and
went on to redefine work and family, but getting old is making them
nervous.

Now, forty-three percent say they don’t expect to be
able to depend on Medicare forever, while only 20 percent think their
Medicare is secure. The rest have mixed feelings.

Yet the survey also shows a surprising willingness among adults of all ages to sacrifice to preserve Medicare benefits that most Americans say they deserve after years of paying taxes into the system at work.

Take the contentious issue of Medicare’s eligibility age, fixed at 65, while the qualifying age for Social Security is rising gradually to 67.

Initially, 63 percent of boomers in the poll
dismissed the idea of raising the eligibility age to keep Medicare
afloat financially. But when the survey forced them to choose between
raising the age or cutting benefits, 59 percent said raise the age and
keep the benefits.

“I don’t mind the fact that people may have to work a
little longer,” said Lynn Barlow, 60, a real estate agent who lives
outside Atlanta. Especially if there’s time to plan, laboring a few
extra years allows people to save more for retirement.

Bring up benefit cuts
and Barlow isn’t nearly as accommodating. “I started working when I was
16 and I expect a benefit after putting into it for so many years,” she
said.

As Medicare reaches a historic threshold, the poll
also found differences by age, gender and income among baby boomers. For
example, baby boom women, who can expect to live longer than both their
mothers and their husbands, are much more pessimistic than men about
the program’s future.

Medicare is a middle-class bulwark against the
ravages of illness in old age. It covers 46 million elderly and disabled
people at an annual cost of about $500 billion. But the high price of
American-style medicine, stressing intensive treatment and the latest
innovations, is already straining program finances. Add the number of
baby boomers, more than 70 million born between 1946 and 1964, and
Medicare’s fiscal foundation starts to shake.

Read more of this article.

Supplemental Medicare Insurance:  We do not anticipate Medicare disappearing entirely, but it is entirely possible that the program will undergo major changes in the near future.  As such, considering insurance to supplement Medicare now may be a good plan.

A recent study of Baby Boomers finds that while the Boomers have
experienced the struggle their parents are facing with long-term care,
few are doing anything to acquire their own coverage. The results of the
survey show that more needs to be done to educate and motive Baby
Boomers to seek long-term care coverage sooner, rather than later.

The online survey, conducted by the research firm of Mathew Greenwald
& Associates, was taken by 1,073 Americans between the ages of 46
to 64. The survey revealed that personal experiences, such as the
current economic hardship or watching their parents age, have inspired
many Boomers to take hold of their financial future, including seeking
out long-term care coverage.

“This study explored the influence a parents’ long-term care
experience can have on their Boomer children,” said Mathew Greenwald, of
Greenwald & Associates. “Boomers overwhelmingly say they learned
the consequences of being unprepared, however very few currently have
long-term care insurance. Even though Baby Boomers face a more than
seven in ten chance that they will have some long-term care needs later
in life, many haven’t connected the risk to their own personal
situation.”

The survey’s findings exposed powerful recognition of the benefits of
having long-term care insurance among Baby Boomers – mainly for
financial and emotional benefits such as protecting their families from
paying, providing peace of mind, ensuring retirement savings remain, and
helping with the ability to leave an inheritance.

Approximately 72 percent of Baby Boomers whose parents had used
long-term care insurance said it was a “good value” for reasons such as
increasing quality of life, preserving the parents’ nest egg, and
lessening the family’s financial contribution to care. Of those Boomers
whose parents did not have long-term care coverage and needed it, 71
percent think that coverage would have benefited their families.

The study found that while more than half of the surveyed Boomers
worry that they will need long-term care themselves, only 9 percent of
these Boomers have actually purchased long-term care coverage. Many
signs point to the fact that Boomers do not fully understand how
long-term care financing works and do not grasp the concept of paying
now and benefiting later on in life.

Read more of this article.

Long Term Care Insurance:  Long Term Care coverage is a more and more critical portion of any serious retirement plan, and the lack of it can absolutely destroy not only your retirement plan, but those of your relatives and loved ones.  While not everyone should purchase it, everyone should at least consider it.  Find out more at NewRetirement.com