Senior care costs vary widely, based on which type of senior care health insurance a senior has received – Medicare or Medicaid. As the presidential election gears into high speed, much talk and confusion is now filling the airwaves around Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs.
American seniors receive Medicare health insurance beginning at age 65, unless they qualify for Medicaid instead, as a very low-income senior. You may review Medicaid financial qualifications in your state, as Medicaid is administered by each state in combination with federal money. This is why Paul Ryan, the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate received health care and Social Security payments while he was a minor after the death of his father when he was age 16. Paul Ryan also requested a grant for a community health center in Racine, Wisconsin, via the new healthcare law.
This highlights the fact that candidates from both parties know that healthcare is a need for both those who are low-income as well as for seniors. Moving past the political posturing, the facts are often somewhere in the middle.
Senior caregivers often do not have healthcare as a benefit – if they work part-time or as a direct-hire for a senior. One benefit of the new healthcare law is the ability for everyone, including small business owners, to have access to affordable healthcare and the benefit of knowing that you will not be dropped from an insurance policy.
As unemployment remains high in the U.S.A., knowing you can both find and purchase individual health insurance and not be dropped from a plan just because you are not part of a group health insurance plan is a comfort to many Americans. This also will be a comfort for senior caregivers who currently do not have health insurance. A Caregiverlist®️ survey found that more than 50% of all senior caregivers do not have health insurance.
Medicare’s largest cost that can be easily trimmed is Medicare fraud which amounts to billions of dollars each year. AARP supplies this report on questions to consider for candidates around Medicare. Meanwhile, remember that senior caregivers often do not have access to health insurance right now. One of the benefits of the new Affordable Care Act, called the O’bama Care law, is that everyone will have access to health insurance.
Remember, too, that Medicare does NOT pay for long-term care while Medicaid DOES pay for long-term care in a nursing home. Review nursing home costs nationwide to plan for your senior care needs.
