Maybe if we could find that exact moment in time and space where reason stops and reckless dismissal begins, we could repair the faulty wiring. If we could just locate the short in the normal flow of intellectual current, perhaps we could somehow prevent the squirrels from chewing on the wiring.
As certified LTC insurance professionals we understand the clear and present danger of not connecting risk to insurance.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that 70 percent of individuals over 65 will require at least some type of long term care services. It makes no difference that the possibility can represent one day or 15 years. The risk is real.
The recent Prudential survey, “Long Term Care Insurance: A Piece of the Retirement and Estate Planning Puzzle, 2011,” again identifies Americans’ recognition of the possibility of a shocking event causing severe damage to caregiver health, legacy meltdown and emotional fatigue. The study clearly indicates that Americans are concerned about their need for long term care services, yet aren’t confident about their ability to cover the related cost.
And we know what opens eyes, focuses attention and illuminates a rational stream of consciousness: caregiving. The Prudential survey again outlines the obvious direct wiring pattern: “The level of concern respondents have correlates directly with their caregiving experience.”
If we could just find the disconnect. Exactly where do consumers stop thinking? Where do their synapses break down?
According to the Prudential survey, 63 percent of Americans are not confident in their ability to pay for extended care. Americans understand how the wiring progresses-nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 35 and 65 say they know someone who has required long term care services.
The survey also indicates that we are still unclear as to which color wire is the hot wire. Apparently one-third of Americans still believe government programs will meet their LTC needs. Americans seriously overestimate the actual cost of care, and one-third of those surveyed believed they had adequate personal assets and income to cover their own costs. The survey also suggested that waiting to buy until retirement was a better planning strategy.
Clearly, we still have an enormous educational rewiring job ahead of us. Too many Americans remain unable to make the obvious connection between the certainty of the risk and the necessity to take action to protect themselves and their families. Americans want to believe in the strength of adequate financial wiring. They do not wish for faulty wiring and unreliable planning to cause them to become a burden to their families.
According to the survey, 85 percent of married individuals bought LTC insurance so that they would not become a burden to their families, and individuals between 45 and 54 were the most likely to have purchased LTC insurance for the same reason. As consumers approach retirement and come in contact with caregiving, they do become more aware of the need.
It is always at this point where consumer surveys fail to reveal the exact location of the faulty wiring. American consumers do understand the problem and they need to resolve the problem. The survey, for example, also reported that even those who currently do not own long term care insurance recognize that it is important to retirement planning, with more than 6 in 10 rating it as “highly important” coverage to own. Consumers do understand that direct hard-wired insurance risk leveraging remains the only structurally sound alternative.
The mystery persists; the disconnect remains a mystery, resistant to repair.
We can only do what we know helps create a brighter future: educate and illuminate the reality of the risk, demonstrate our ongoing commitment to eliminate inadequate financial wiring and serve as an electronic guidance system which always finds its way to peace of mind.
Other than that I have no opinion on the subject.
