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Necessity of Long Term Care for Elderly People

Most Elderly Have Failed to Plan for Long-Term Care

If today one asks an older person what his or her most important concerns, we would probably get a variety of different answers. But according to a surveys often conducted for the elderly people, the most likely answers we will receive would include the following three principal concerns.

• Remaining independent in the home without interference of others.
• Maintaining good health and receiving adequate health care or coverage.
• Having enough money for everyday needs and not outlasting assets and income

Although the elderly are certainly concerned about the need for long-term care it is not very high on the list of their concerns. It is a human nature not to worry about anything until something happens. Certainly everyone is concerned about not having his house burn down or meeting with an accident or getting an unexpected illness or ending up in the hospital. But these things are typically beyond once control and we can’t definitely sit around and worry about them. But people do plan for the risk of loss and naturally have set money aside or bought health insurance or prepared written documents to cover the unexpected once. Long-term care is a perfect answer for all the above uncontrollable loss through various calamities.

For the elderly person the need for long-term care is possibly the most important factor as terrible unexpected events can happen to them. This is because the need for long-term care are typically designed to remove any level of insecurity an elderly person might have with the three major lifestyle concerns mentioned above.

With the need for long-term care the older person

• Loses independence
• Has experienced a loss of good health
• Uses up left over assets and the income

No other late-life event could be as overwhelming to the lifestyle of elderly that are so concerned about maintaining their health. No wonder many elderly care recipients withdraw, become angry and also may suffer from severe depression.

Ironically, older people carefully scrape together $150-$200 a month to buy Medicare supplement insurance care to cover a risk about equal to their yearly premiums. They would go without or sacrifice food, recreation and activities in order to save on to the last few dollars in their savings accounts.

Yet very few elderly people spend money and time to plan for the event of long-term care. It seems a paradox, which someone would be more concerned about buying insurance for a home fire when the risk of long-term care is 500 times more likely. Or what about the cost of insuring an auto accident when the risk of long-term care is 120 times more likely and is possibility of 20 times more expensive? Or why the overwhelming concern to buy Medicare supplement insurance coverage when even without it Medicare would still cover most of their health needs after deductibles and co-pays? We're not recommending you to go without insurance coverage we're simply using it as an example of how people refuse to deal with the issue of long-term care.

No one knows why normally people beyond age 65 are not concerned about preparing for long-term care. Perhaps they are satisfied with the care given by their family members or friends and have not seen the supportive effect of long term care under necessities. Otherwise they mistakenly think the government would surely take care of them or they are assured that family and friends would provide proper health care when needed, but don’t know how difficult it really is for loved ones to provide that actual care when the time comes. Whatever may be the case, without proper planning, the need for long-term care could result in the single greatest crisis in an elderly people’s life.

This lack of planning would always have an adverse effect on the elder people’s family. It usually results in great sacrifice or financial cost on the part of their spouse or children. Or for those with no immediate family, care could be a huge load to extended family members. Planning for a Good health care is always the best option to handle various catastrophic situations.

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