Comments on: Reverse Mortgage in Health Care http://www.bloggernews.net/17488 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:48:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Art Blanchet http://www.bloggernews.net/17488#comment-43054 Art Blanchet Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:22:26 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/17488#comment-43054 What you write of in this article - utilizing reverse mortgages to pay for older citizens' health care - is a concept both terrifying and unconscionable. Here in the US medical costs have long since passed the level of "ridiculous" and are still spiraling upward. Your proposal of obligating home equity to fund medical procedures for an aging population sounds like a solution for many, but it could be disastrous. Reverse mortgages are unavailable to homeowners until all parties on title reach 62 years of age. Even then, with the complicated and expensive (eight to 12% of loan proceeds) formula for determining cash availability, a very small percentage of the home's value qualifies. When such obligatory expenses as property taxes, maintenance, repairs and homeowners insurance are thrown in, there will be little money for something as over-priced as health care. I think the shift to use consumers’ real estate equity to supplement their own health care will benefit two groups - the banking industry and the medical industry - consumer benefits will be minimal. Why? I see all this available cash leading to inflated medical costs being passed on to those most in need as greed and mismanagement financially bleed our older citizens bone dry. How many hip or knee replacements would it take to obliterate every penny in a couple's reverse mortgage security blanket? Then we’ll leave our unhappy couple with their nightmare revisited - too much time and expense being met by too little money. That's not what a reverse mortgage is for - it's to supplement a lifestyle. Medicare and Medicaid CANNOT pass the burden of health care unto older homeowners just because strong banking and medical lobbies want to get their hands on that easy money. Don’t think special interests are at work? According to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, The U.S. House of Representatives is considering legislation that would make substantial improvements to the federal reverse mortgage program, including a plan that would allow older homeowners to access greater amounts of equity from their homes. Where do you think that extra money will go? Our older citizens need their homes and our government needs to take care of its citizens’ medical needs. Forcing older citizens to tap into their home’s equity - by reducing government–provided medical services or by the (apparently eventual) mandating of the liquidation of all personal resources first – is a barbaric idea that needs to be quelched. What you write of in this article - utilizing reverse mortgages to pay for older citizens’ health care - is a concept both terrifying and unconscionable. Here in the US medical costs have long since passed the level of “ridiculous” and are still spiraling upward. Your proposal of obligating home equity to fund medical procedures for an aging population sounds like a solution for many, but it could be disastrous.

Reverse mortgages are unavailable to homeowners until all parties on title reach 62 years of age. Even then, with the complicated and expensive (eight to 12% of loan proceeds) formula for determining cash availability, a very small percentage of the home’s value qualifies. When such obligatory expenses as property taxes, maintenance, repairs and homeowners insurance are thrown in, there will be little money for something as over-priced as health care.

I think the shift to use consumers’ real estate equity to supplement their own health care will benefit two groups - the banking industry and the medical industry - consumer benefits will be minimal. Why? I see all this available cash leading to inflated medical costs being passed on to those most in need as greed and mismanagement financially bleed our older citizens bone dry. How many hip or knee replacements would it take to obliterate every penny in a couple’s reverse mortgage security blanket? Then we’ll leave our unhappy couple with their nightmare revisited - too much time and expense being met by too little money. That’s not what a reverse mortgage is for - it’s to supplement a lifestyle. Medicare and Medicaid CANNOT pass the burden of health care unto older homeowners just because strong banking and medical lobbies want to get their hands on that easy money.

Don’t think special interests are at work? According to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, The U.S. House of Representatives is considering legislation that would make substantial improvements to the federal reverse mortgage program, including a plan that would allow older homeowners to access greater amounts of equity from their homes. Where do you think that extra money will go?

Our older citizens need their homes and our government needs to take care of its citizens’ medical needs. Forcing older citizens to tap into their home’s equity - by reducing government–provided medical services or by the (apparently eventual) mandating of the liquidation of all personal resources first – is a barbaric idea that needs to be quelched.

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