Editor’s note: We have corrected this post to state that Medicaid (and not Medicare) is the program that funds the long-term care facilities that Steve describes in this article.
In the Navy, we used to say that life on ship was just like being in jail, but in jail you have more room, better food and better friends.
We always had a good laugh about that one.
A recent MarketWatch article compared retirement homes to jails, and it isn’t funny – not at all.
The conclusion: You would be better off committing a crime and going to prison than moving into some retirement homes.
We have all heard the stories of abuse, theft and neglect in some facilities, which, unfortunately, are true more often than we’d like to believe.
Quality of care varies greatly from facility to facility. Negligence is often a way of life. The focus can be on profits, not patients.
A friend of mine recently toured a long-term care home funded by Medicaid. The temperature in the rooms was 94 degrees, but the staff refused to turn the air conditioning on. They claimed to be comfortable.
In case you aren’t already aware of it, your assets are drained down to zero with a three-year look-back period before Medicaid will pay for your care.
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But in jail, you get free food, housing, medical care and a whole slew of legal rights, as well as advocates fighting for your rights as a prisoner – something you do not have in a retirement home.
If you commit a nonviolent crime, you end up in a white collar minimum-security facility that also allows for social interaction.
That’s compared to being alone and broke in a lower-end Medicaid-funded retirement home.
Still, only 5% of Americans have long-term care insurance that would make it possible for them to live in a more expensive, higher-rated facility.
Yes, I know long-term care is expensive, but the choice is pretty clear: Banking on a Medicaid home is not the free ride it appears to be. Take another look at long-term care insurance.
I had a college professor who went to a white collar jail. He said it wasn’t bad. And he still has friends he met while he was inside.
If things go really badly, I may actually consider the prison route. More rights and benefits than a retirement setting… unbelievable!
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