How to Plan Long Term Care

Today I had a tour cancel - so while I am sad that I am not showing a family some assisted living options as planned, I am happy to have some catch up time.  Its been a long while since I posted.  There have been a few caregiver conferences and even a trip to Vegas for my birthday, but now I am back. Earlier this week, I attended a seminar given by Terry Savage .  It was fantastic.  I immediately sent a link to her website to my father for him to check out.  I was looking at it today and she has a lot of great financial tools that can help someone figure out how much they need to retire or their "Savage Number...".  If you click on her name above, it will take you directly to the site. Another reason I have not been blogging is because the phone has not stopped ringing.  While this is a good thing, I have been spending a lot of time on the phone talking to people I cannot help.  Many people this week have called me regarding nursing homes that accept Medicaid.  I work with private pay assisted living, independent living etc, as well as a few private pay nursing homes.  I can even recommend supportive living, which accepts Medicaid, but I cannot help with a Medicaid nursing home.I would hope that this is an option of absolute last resort for anyone and unfortunately it seems to be the only alternative for many people.  Many seniors did not purchase long term care insurance - maybe because its has only been around for 20 some years, or maybe because they always planned on staying in their own home. Maybe they thought that the government or Medicare would pay for their care.  It does not.  Unless you are impoverished and then that's where Medicaid kicks in. The honest truth is that your options are so much more limited if Medicaid is your only option for paying for long term care.  And the addition of all the baby boomer's in the market in the next few years is only going to make it worse.  I have already seen nursing homes where the private pay patients are in a private room and Medicaid patients are 4 to a room.  In the same nursing home. Another reason to plan NOW.  Before the crisis.  Look into long term care insurance NOW.  Before you can't get it.  What if you never need it?  Well what if you never need auto insurance or home owners insurance?  You buy it and send off that monthly check every month and hope you never need it.I will write more about long term care insurance in the future.  I am not an expert on it, but I love when someone calls me and tells me they (or their mom) has it because now I can help them and now their options are greater.  They even have the option of staying home with care - because that is not cheap either and guess who doesn't pay for that either.. that's right, Medicare.   (And with Medicaid you might be eligible for 4 hours a day 5 days a week with a caregiver that may or may not show up..)

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