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Personally, I think there should be a tax-deferred long term care savings plan, like IRA's.
It's my understanding that you can use your Health Savings Account (HSA) - assuming your employer offers one - to pay LTCI costs.
Advantage: HSAs use pre-tax dollars. So they're sort of like IRAs.
Disadvantages: These days, post-depression - more people work for companies that are not likely to offer benefits that require administrative overhead, like HSAs. For the self-employed, marginally employed, underemployed, and part-time-employees, many are not likely to have the option of a HSA. For low wage workers that do have the option, HD plan is a slap in the face. You have health insurance only in theory. Who can worry about LTCI, when the immediate need is finding enough cash under the cushions and coat pockets to make up bus fare.
Additional constraint: in my co., don't know if it's the case everywhere, you can only implement a HSA if you opt into a high deductible medical plan. So, you're paying for health insurance that you can't use, and for a HSA that that you can't afford. The HSA does have one advantage in this scenario - it rolls over year after year. You can use it now, or in retirement to pay for Medicare charges, medicines, deductibles, LTCI payments or whatever. But again, when the challenge is meeting next week's bills, who can afford to think thirty years into the future.
It's a sad state of affairs, IMO. A few posters on C-D have described LTC equivalents in other countries, notably Thailand, with the observation that the standard of care is somewhat more - err - caring than here, where LTC is set up for profit. To me, a forbidding prospect, being in a foreign country where I don't speak the language and where I can't advocate for myself, and being more or less at the mercy of strangers.
the problem is trying to save enough in an hsa to cover both your medical and long term care. i know there is no way i could have saved enough for retirement and to have a few hundreds thousand socked away in an hsa which is what it could take .
I hope to break my neck falling off my horse at a full gallop on a fine day. No nursing home needed. R.N. will never stand for Retired Nurse.
I have seen these places, they are hidious, even the nice ones. To warehouse old people like stacked firewood....for profit!
In New Zealand do you know how they do? They have little places with clusters of tiny cottages. Each old person has their own little place. They grow gardens of flowers and nurses come check on them and look after them. I think they all go eat at a kitchen there.
Someday, I would like to buy an old Victorian house, make wheelchair ramps, ect, and have a sort of an old folks commune. Everybody kicks in what $ they can to support the house. The old ladies could snap beans on the porch, the old guys could go fishing or fix an old car in the driveway, or old guys could also snap beans and ladies could go fishing. Someone (like me for instance) could give out the medicine and give nursing care. Yea, eventually, people would get too old to get out of bed or too demented, but they could still have activities and stay engaged with the household. The younger old people coming to live there could help take care of the older old people. Thats part of the deal for when they thenselves get old and all stove up as we say in the country. This is how I myself would like to be treated. What do you all think?
widows in the south, and perhaps other places, with large houses to maintain use to "keep old men" for their SS checks. You would often see several elderly men on a sofa on the porch or in chairs in the yard under the trees. It was an acceptable practice. I am beginning to think of those as the good old days
widows in the south, and perhaps other places, with large houses to maintain use to "keep old men" for their SS checks. You would often see several elderly men on a sofa on the porch or in chairs in the yard under the trees. It was an acceptable practice. I am beginning to think of those as the good old days
Those men are not candidates for nursing homes today.
What some posters post as examples..............cottages, men fishing, gardens
Get real!
The patients in nursing homes ARE NOT IN THAT GOOD OF A CONDITION.
Those men are not candidates for nursing homes today.
What some posters post as examples..............cottages, men fishing, gardens
Get real!
The patients in nursing homes ARE NOT IN THAT GOOD OF A CONDITION.
the thread was about nursing homes .
Well, it depends on what you call a "nursing home". There are many people up walking around in the ones I have visited. I only said "sitting in chairs in the yard". I didn't say they were playing tennis.
I am about as real as it gets
On my last visit to see my doctor, I said, "It's hard to know where the effects of the illness leave off and the side effects of the medications begin" and he agreed.
The thread is about "ending up in a Nursing Home". Some of us think there are, or should be, or once were alternatives. Dying in a chair under a tree when your life could have been prolonged in a medical facility sounds good to me.
widows in the south, and perhaps other places, with large houses to maintain use to "keep old men" for their SS checks. You would often see several elderly men on a sofa on the porch or in chairs in the yard under the trees. It was an acceptable practice. I am beginning to think of those as the good old days
Yes, there used to be actual "homes" — probably why they called them "nursing homes"—large houses with many rooms run by one or several licensed owners. You'd see the old folks on the porches rocking. I'm sure the prices did not bankrupt the elder or her family. And if all it takes is a SS check to stay in one, I say what a bargain!
Those men are not candidates for nursing homes today.
What some posters post as examples..............cottages, men fishing, gardens
Get real!
The patients in nursing homes ARE NOT IN THAT GOOD OF A CONDITION.
the thread was about nursing homes .
The residents in the "homes" of yesteryear—in those big houses run independently, called nursing homes or "old folks' homes"—were ancient and not in that great condition. My aunt was in one, and also others I've known of. There's still one or two around here today. The patients were confined to a room, a nice one, and typically had walkers and wheelchairs and sometimes oxygen. We looked into one for my mom in Maryland near where my sister lives. You may not be old enough to remember.
I remember visiting my great aunt in a nursing HOME before she died. I was very young, under 6, and can't remember a lot of details but it was a house not an institution.
They still have these small elder care places in homes around here but you have to be really careful about choosing one.
Yes, there used to be actual "homes" — probably why they called them "nursing homes"—large houses with many rooms run by one or several licensed owners. You'd see the old folks on the porches rocking. I'm sure the prices did not bankrupt the elder or her family. And if all it takes is a SS check to stay in one, I say what a bargain!
You are talking about a licensed establishment. I was referring to something more casual..... more like a boarding house. No license, inspections, etc, etc involved. My motherinlaw had a neighbor in the 70's who "kept old men". It couldn't be done today, and I expect there were situations that weren't as pleasant as the one next door.
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