The Prelude:

Bruce Gray, founder of GP Financial Services, joins John Stillman to talk about some common misunderstandings that people have about Medicare.

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The Bass Lines:

[1:18] – We have to be careful when we discuss the particulars of Medicare coverage. As an example, there’s a difference in skilled care and custodial care. Yes, Medicare will cover skilled care on a daily basis. However, it doesn’t cover custodial care, and custodial care includes helping you to bath and move around. If you’re in a situation where you need long-term care, you need to know that Medicare won’t necessarily cover all of your needs because it was never designed to be a long-term care plan.

[6:26] – If Medicare isn’t going to cover everything, you need to have a plan for long-term care. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to purchase long-term care insurance. Today we also have medicare annuities. If you purchase a fixed annuity with a guaranteed growth rate, you stand to gain more should you need the money to go into a long-term care facility. Of course if you don’t, the money will still pass along to your children. This is a win-win as you get to maintain control of your money.

[8:45] – Bruce suggests that traditional long-term care insurance is far more rarely used today. Premiums are expensive. If you and your spouse are in your 60s, you could pay almost $8,000 a year in premiums. Long-term care costs today have skyrocketed since the Medicare system first appeared in the mid-1960s.