Even though it is looming large in Americans’ lives, no one wants to talk about it. That’s why we call it the Pink Elephant. Have you truly prepared your finances to handle the skyrocketing costs of health care?
Consider these staggering statistics:
- The number of Americans aged 65 and older will more than double by 2040 to 81 million from 40 million in 2010.
- In the 50 years, up through 2009, national health expenditures increased from 4.7% to 17.3% of US GDP.
- With baby boomers just now starting to retire, this number is expected to increase to 19.5% of our GDP by 2019!
- More than 50% of all Medicaid spending was due to Long Term Care related expenses.
- Medicaid spending for Long Term Care on the disabled and elderly is expected to rise to $3.7 Trillion in the next 20 years.
- In recent years inflation for LTC has been running at twice the rate of the Consumer Price Index.
Now in 2011 and 2012 we are having serious budgetary issues…
CLASS, which stood for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, was a pet project of the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy. It was supposed to help Americans pay the cost of long-term care. Recently however, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted that there is no way CLASS can work. "Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius wrote in a letter to Congress.