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All of our lives we have been in a process of budgeting to live healthily. We have had to plan ahead for everything from doctors visits, dental work, and medication to less memorable things like Band-Aids and cough drops. While we could all confess to occasionally missing a night of teeth brushing due to circumstances, our experience shows us that cutting corners in the long run, like it does with everything else, comes back to get us in the end.

As we get older we have new challenges to take into account when it comes to taking care of ourselves. It seems that while it takes us longer to do what we used to do in leaps and bounds we also have to take on more responsibilities to keep up our health. These new responsibilities include more medications, doctor visits, and skilled services. These additions are not cheap. We and our families are usually the ones, not the government, that step up to the plate to handle these new costs in personal time and expenses. The majority of long term care services, 84% of all of them, are provided free of charge by family caregivers or paid out-of-pocket by families and those receiving care.

Just as we are tempted to skip out on a doctors appointment and spend the cash on something more enjoyable than getting poked and prodded, it is also tempting to cut back on paying for health care needs accrued with age. “Planning for Eldercare” at http://www.planforcare.org would recommend in your best interest against this temptation.
“Using care professionals is the most cost effective and efficient way to provide help for a loved one. Hiring professional advisers or providers to help with long term care is no different than using professionals to help with other complex issues such as car repairs, dealing with taxes, dealing with legal problems, or needing trained employees to help run a business. With their education and training, long term care professionals also bring experience that only comes from dealing with countless hands- on caregiving challenges”. “The 4 Steps of Long Term Care Planning”

Along with providing these necessary services Cooperative Home Care, ranked in the top 10 percentile among home care companies in the nation, can assist in finding a way to make it affordable. It isn’t intuitive that a home health agency would help find ways to make care financially possible, but this story of Tim, Debra, and their daughter Diana sheds some light on the situation.

Tim and Debra, both in their late 80’s, were adamant about staying in their home. Both were taking medications and were mobile with walkers. Their daughter, Julie was concerned about their safety in the home, especially with avoiding hazardous falls, bathing and preparing meals. Tim insisted he could drive his car, even though he was a hazard on the road. Julie had taken the car keys and therefore faced an argument every time she went to their home.

Lately, Julie noticed that the required medications were not being taken. Tim was a diabetic and required monitoring with his insulin and diet. Julie ordered “Meals on Wheels” which her mother quickly canceled. Frustrated at having no cooperation from her parents, Julie realized she needed outside help.

Checking the internet for resources in her area, she found the name of a Professional Care Manager in her area listed on her State Care Planning Council website. Jackie — the professional care manager and family dispute professional — had worked many times with families like Julie and her parents.

A meeting was arranged where all parties to the care giving were involved. Tim expressed that he did not want to give up his freedom driving to the store or other places he liked to go. Jackie suggested selling the car and using the money to pay a taxi or community transit. She arranged for Tim to see a geriatric physician to get his diet under control for his diabetes. Some in-home help with bathing, meal preparation and medication reminders was arranged by having a local non-medical home care company come in daily. Jackie gave Julie explicit instructions on how to organize the house to help prevent falls. To pay for the extra expense, Jackie introduced a reverse mortgage broker who explained how their home equity– on a risk-free basis –could provide the money they needed for their care.

Every service provider or adviser Jackie brought in worked side-by-side with her on the state care planning council. Jackie knew they could provide the needed help with expertise and integrity.
Julie found that using professionals gave her peace of mind and confidence that her parents’ care was in good hands.

There are ways to make health care happen. The home care Cooperative Home Care offers is one of the most affordable and statistically dependable options out there. We could take care of ourselves physically as young adults. Cooperative Home Care can help empower us to do it in the golden years.

Long Term Care Health Insurance May Be Worth a Look

There are a number of interpretations by various studies of how long we may be expected to live. A team of Harvard researchers conducted a 21-year study (1980-2001) and considered factors like disease, income, access to health care and geographic area. Based on this study they came up with “8” Americas.

“America One,” comprised of about 10 million Asians, has an average life expectancy of 85. “America Two,” consists of approximately 3½ million low-income whites who live predominantly in the Dakotas, Iowa, Montana, Minnesota and Nebraska. This lower than normal income group lives an average of 79 years and demonstrates the best level of health among whites. The majority of the population, about 214 million, has a life expectancy of 78 and makes up “America Three” while “America Four” consists of poor whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley whose life expectancy is 75. “America Five, or Western Native Americans, live to an average of 73 as do “American Six” which is categorized as black-middle America. Making up “America Seven and Eight,” both with a life expectancy of 71, are low-income Southern rural blacks and high-risk urban blacks.

Another look at longevity, this time on a global level, is one calculated by the World Health Organization called HALEs (Healthy Life Expectancy). This is the average number of years a newborn can expect to live in “full health.” It’s a complicated calculation made by demographers and statisticians to adjust life expectancy to reflect how much of that time will be spent in poor health. Consider these contrasting numbers: a male in Afghanistan has a HALE of 35 years, but a life expectancy of 42 years while a male in the United States has a HALE of 67 years and a life expectancy of 75. Similar contrasts exist for females. A female in Afghanistan has a HALE of 36 with a life expectancy of 42 while a female in the United States has a HALE of 71 with a life expectancy of 80.

A more general overview is provided by the Center of Disease Control for Health Statistics. Their computations show that a child born in the United States in 2005 can expect to live 77.9 years, up from 77.8 in 2004 and continuing a rise dating back decades. U.S. life expectancy was 75.8 years in 1995 and 69.6 years in 1955.

The United States, a country of 300 million people, ranks 42nd in the world in life expectancy. One basic conclusion that can be drawn from all these studies is that we are living longer and need to make appropriate provisions for that prolonged existence. Long term care health insurance is one option to consider in preparing for one’s future.

I suggest that you talk to your insurance agent about long term care insurance.

Mitch Waks
Cooperative Home Care