Monday, October 31, 2011

Economy Delays Boomers' Plans to Sell Homes


Economy Delays Boomers' Plans to Sell Homes

CNBC

By Lulu Chiang, Senior Field Producer, CNBC 

NEW YORK (CNBC) -- In a survey conducted by Coldwell Banker Real Estate, 9 out of 10 brokers said "the economy is delaying baby boomers' plans to sell their homes, compared to a few years ago."
The big issue is the huge number of foreclosures. Jim Gillespie, CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, said it really depends on how long it will take to work through the foreclosures in the system.
However, the survey pointed out that baby boomer desire to purchase and own a home remains strong. The reason? Gillespie believes the American dream of owning a home is alive and well.No one seems to have a definitive answer on the timeline. All of this is based on Americans going back to work and consumer confidence coming back. That's the big overhang.
Home ownership is still the American dream. "60-75% of Americans say investing in a home is the safest or second safest investment," said Gillespie. It all boils down to lifestyle. "The long-term future of the housing market looks good," added Gillespie.
Gillespie pointed out that a lot of young people are living with their parents, grandparents or other family members. Once we see job creation and consumer confidence bounce back, Gillespie expects demand to pick up. Right now, many young people out there are renting because the economy is weak, and there may be not as much funding available to them.
Is this just a temporary trend? Gillespie dismisses the idea we are turning into a renter's society. "That is not the case," added Gillespie.
Currently, the baby boomer generation accounts for 79 million Americans. The survey divided up the boomers into two groups, younger baby boomers (ages 47-55) and older baby boomers (ages 56-64). "31% of respondents say that younger baby boomer clients are selling their current home and looking for a larger home, compared to 6% of older boomers," based on results of the survey.
Four out of five agents said that 'older' baby boomers are two times more likely to want to downsize than 'younger' ones. Gillespie stressed that half are downsizing for a simpler lifestyle, not downsizing for economic reasons.
According to the survey, "49% of agents say the primary reason boomers want to downsize is because they desire a simpler lifestyle, while only 28% said the leading reason boomers are downsizing is to save money."
Coldwell Banker Real Estate conducted this online survey across the country about housing trends for baby boomers. Over 1,300 agents participated in this survey. The survey was conducted during the week of September 6 and September 15, 2011.
-- Written by Lulu Chiang, Senior Field Producer and Senior Booker of CNBC's "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo" and "The Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo."

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Medicare's Annual Open Enrollment is from Oct. 15 - Dec. 7


Medicare's Annual Open Enrollment is from Oct. 15 - Dec. 7
Every year, people with Medicare get to explore new choices and pick the health and drug plans that work best for them. This year, this Open Enrollment period is starting earlier – on October 15 – and ending sooner – December 7. This gives people with Medicare a full seven weeks to compare and make decisions, and ensures that they will have essential plan materials and membership cards in hand on January 1, 2012 when new coverage starts.
There'll be a wide range of health and drug plan options available across the country, including Original Medicare. Most people with Medicare can choose a "Part D" plan to help them pay for prescription drugs. And people who have chosen to enroll in a "Part C" Medicare Advantage plan for their basic health care services have the option of staying in that plan, choosing a different plan, or going back to the Original Medicare program. Plans can change from year to year, so these are important choices that should be made with care. People can turn to www.medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or consult with a local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) for help.

Monday, October 17, 2011

House Panel Hunts the Elusive 'Millionaire on Medicaid'


Oct 03, 2011 01:52:48am
A House subcommittee convened a hearing September 21 on alleged abuses of Medicaid long-term care eligibility rules.  None of the four witnesses identified significant gaming of the system by the well-to-do, although the "elder law bar" came in for some abuse.  
In his opening remarks, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Healthcare, contended that some are trying to "turn the [social] safety net into a hammock or a trampoline."
"Medicaid is not being used solely by the indigent," Gowdy said.  "Income and asset tests are easy to circumvent and abuse.  In fact, a cottage industry has arisen seeking to educate the wealthy on how to transfer or hide assets so taxpayers can pay for their long-term care."
"Millionaires should not be on welfare," Gowdy concluded.
The committee heard from four witnesses, including one former elder law attorney.  Only one witness appeared to think that abuse of the Medicaid eligibility rules by the well-off was much of a problem, and even she defined the alleged abusers as those with a few hundred thousand dollars in assets beyond their home. 
Moses Says Middle Class Eligibility Is the Problem
Lead witness Stephen Moses, President of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, chose to focus the committee's attention on reforming Medicaid's "generous" eligibility rules that allow the middle class to qualify, and he characterized "egregious Medicaid planning" by the wealthy as just "the tip of the iceberg."
"Income almost never disqualifies anyone from Medicaid long-term care eligibility," Moses told the committee, and he went on to claim that there is "no meaningful limit" on how many exempt assets applicants may retain and still qualify for benefits.
"Because of these very generous basic eligibility rules, the vast majority of America's elderly qualify easily for Medicaid when they need long-term care," he said.  Such easy qualification discourages most people from planning early to "save, invest or insure for long-term care."   
As an example of the changes he would recommend, Moses claimed that Medicaid could save up to $30 billion a year if people had to consume their home equity before qualifying for public benefits.
David A. Dorfman, who said that he was a "Medicaid planning attorney" in New York until this past January, called the alleged abuse of Medicaid eligibility rules by the well-heeled "a myth.  That's not really what's happening.  That's not what any of my clients wanted.  None of them wanted to game the system."
"Soup kitchens are free and nobody checks five years' worth of bank statements, and millionaires don't go there for lunch," Dorfman said.  "We can't mandate abject poverty, because that's what people are terrified of.  And if that has to be created, no matter what the rules, people will do whatever they have to do to get the necessary health care for their loved ones, or they'll suffer and die without care. . . Let's create a system that invites people in who need health care, not one that punishes them."
The third witness, Janice Eulau, the Assistant Administrator of the Suffolk County (New York) Department of Social Services, was the only one to claim that alleged abuses of the Medicaid system are a significant problem.  Conceding that her county is relatively affluent, Eulau said that "people often come in and they have total resources of $300,000 to $400,000 beyond their home" and other exempt assets.  She singled out promissory notes as a legal tool most often used, at least by single clients.   For couples, she said spousal refusal is the most common method for preserving resources.
The last witness, Julie Hamos, Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, also declined to climb aboard the "millionaires on Medicaid" bandwagon.  "What we are finding in Illinois is that this is more of a middle class family issue than millionaires.  Let's say there's a saving of a little pot of money, say $100,000, the family doesn't want all of that to go into nursing home care."
Hamos said that there is bipartisan acceptance of these practices in her state.  She then said that her department was looking to another front to exact savings: ending Medicaid's institutional bias. 
"Millionaires Don't Want Medicaid"
In questioning, Rep. Gowdy tried to trap Dorfman into conceding that a program designed for the poor is nevertheless aiding the non-poor.  Dorfman replied that "Medicaid is not for the indigent, but for those who qualify for the program."
Dorfman told Gowdy that his picture of millionaires who voluntarily impoverish themselves so their children can have an inheritance and taxpayers can pay for their long-term care was "not the typical experience across 20 years of doing Medicaid planning, although there are certainly exceptions."  Later, Dorman said, "Millionaires don't want Medicaid . . . they want fancy care, they want care that they control."
Gowdy also asked Moses to explain spousal refusal.  After pointing out that it is used primarily only in New York and Florida, Moses added that "The elder law bar, in frequent annual conferences, urges the rest of the country to take advantage of what they consider a 'right' under the federal law to simply have the spouse refuse to contribute to the cost of the care.  It's very, very expensive in New York and Florida and frankly I don't think most of the other states have the impunity to try to pull that off."
Towards the hearing's end, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) closely questioned Moses about his professional affiliation.  "When I asked my staff to learn more about you to try to understand where you were coming from," Cummings said, "it seems that your views are really nothing more than the views of the insurance industry." 
Cummings then tried to determine the sources of funding for Moses's Center for Long-Term Care Reform.   He established that the Center is a for-profit entity that is supported at least in part by the long-term care insurance industry, but Moses repeatedly refused to name his corporate contributors, although he did say they do not include David and Charles Koch, brothers who have funded conservative and libertarian advocacy groups.   
Committee spokesperson Jeff Solsby said the hearing was "designed to raise awareness" and that no legislation was immediately planned.
The hearing, titled "Examining Abuses of Medicaid Eligibility Rules," took place on September 21, 2011.   For hearing documents, including a link to the YouTube video of the hearing, click here.