National shortage of home-care workers threatening the option of aging at home (coverage, welfare)
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But what happens to an elderly civilian who is allowed to keep their 500K house but only given $60/month to live on. How are those taxes going to get paid. And if they don't get paid, I guess that means they lose the house, too?
What is wrong with that elderly civilian that they didn't save enough for their retirement?
I am kinda amused and shocked that some here thing everybody had children or family that can or will look after them in old age. Back in the olden days thats the reason people had 15 kids, first as cheap farm labor and second hopefully at least one of them wealthy and kind enough to look after them in old age.
And yea the system isnt very practical. Home health care is a lot more kind to tax payers than sticking everybody into the urine drenched warehouses with the rapists and abusers and very desperate that will take these kind of jobs. Seriously do you want to wipe bottoms for a career? Then why do you think anybody else does, especially for minimum wage so the investors can make a good return??? Some things shouldnt be FOR PROFIT, and this includes most of health care. Unpleasant but necessary jobs should have significant financial reward for those willing to do them. People that wipe bottoms to put food on the table should be some of highest paid people out there. Cause it aint sunshine and lollipops kind of job.
This. America is quite broken. We are based on a form of capitalism that is killing us, squeezing the most possible profit out of every penny regardless of the consequences. It simply is not enough to pay the bills and make a profit, it must the the maximum profit possible.
Other countries figured it out. Most of western Europe and Canada have systems which work better for the majority of their people. We have the wealth, our leaders simply chose poorly over the past 40-50 years and here we are ... everyone for themselves.
What is wrong with that elderly civilian that they didn't save enough for their retirement?
Maybe they did save enough for retirement. But got whammied by unanticipated health issues and medical bills. You can do things right and still wind up struggling.
Maybe they did save enough for retirement. But got whammied by unanticipated health issues and medical bills. You can do things right and still wind up struggling.
If they "got whammied," they clearly should have saved more. The entire purpose of health insurance is to pay for unanticipated health issues and medical bills; they should have had appropriate coverage.
At the end of the day, it is a personal failing.
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And, since you want to play with hypotheticals, "what if" they just took all their money and blew it in Las Vegas?
What is wrong with that elderly civilian that they didn't save enough for their retirement?
Could be lots of things. Inability to earn enough to save during their lifetime. Bad luck with a marriage or a job loss or a medical incident that wiped out their savings.
Makes me curious that you would ask such a question. You don't know any people in real life who aren't in a precarious position financially?
That is good if you are a disabled veteran. But what happens to an elderly civilian who is allowed to keep their 500K house but only given $60/month to live on. How are those taxes going to get paid. And if they don't get paid, I guess that means they lose the house, too?
$60/month amounts to a whopping $13.84 a week. They better have nearby doctors because they'll never be able to afford the gas to get to them otherwise.
They need to sell the house and use that money to survive. They will have a nest egg and can then rent or downsize or move into assisted living if needed. They may not like that, but that is an option, which some people do not have.
My mom is probably going into assisted living in the next couple of years. In her early 80s, she downsized in her early 60s when my dad died. They were very frugal and good savers, but did not make much and certainly knew nothing about investing, so they saved instead. Fortunately, the house was paid off when my dad died and the market was okay, so she sold the house and - thinking ahead - moved into a ground level 2 bedroom 2 bath condo with attached parking. And it was handicap accessible, though she did not need that and still does not.
For 20 years, she has really enjoyed not dealing with a lawn or the exterior and the condo is perfect for her. She could - if she wanted to - get a roommate. Or, use the second bedroom for in-home assistance. The goal is for her to stay in her home as long as possible.
But likely at some point she will need to sell. She may run out of money for in-home care. Or she may need so much care that a facility is the only option. At that point, she will sell and use her assets to pay for a facility, until those are gone and then it is Medicaid.
As our system is set up now, those are her options. She is fortunately - she has a condo (paid for and the market has been fine or better the past several years), some savings and social security.
If they "got whammied," they clearly should have saved more. The entire purpose of health insurance is to pay for unanticipated health issues and medical bills; they should have had appropriate coverage.
At the end of the day, it is a personal failing.
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And, since you want to play with hypotheticals, "what if" they just took all their money and blew it in Las Vegas?
Well, there ARE those people, too, lol.
But there is also a segment of the population who just were never going to make more than they needed to subsist. I am thinking of a woman I know whose daughter was once one of my girl scouts. Nice person, but not a lot going on as far as smarts go. She had an alcoholic father and a cowering mother and probably didn't have a lot to go on growing up. She always had it in her head that she would find a man who would make everything OK, but that's not how reality went for her.
She's had three bad marriages, one to a man who left her for a woman half his age, one to a crazy who lied about his background and his age, and one to a Costa Rican who tricked her into thinking he adored her when he really just wanted a green card and once he was established here, he sent for his REAL fiancee and divorced her. She is just not a very smart woman.
So here she is now, about 66 or 67 years old, working at some desk job for a local electrical contractor and making ends meet by working weekends at the same diner she's been a waitress at for thirty years. Father's dead, mother's in a nursing home with dementia, she has a restraining order against the daughter who was fathered by the crazy and inherited the dad's condition, and the older sons from the first marriage live elsewhere in the country and don't bother with her. Her social security isn't likely to be that much.
What happens when she can't work anymore or if she needs care in the future? She isn't a bad person, just not equipped, and like it or not, there are a lot of Americans like her who did the best with what they had but they didn't have all that much to go on to begin with. If you stand there like a big deal sneering down at someone like her who was doomed going out of the gate saying "well why didn't they SAVE MORE MONEY?", it doesn't say much for you as a person either, now does it.
These too are our fellow Americans. There should be a safety net for them because if we don't take care of such people, what kind of a society does that make us?
If they "got whammied," they clearly should have saved more. The entire purpose of health insurance is to pay for unanticipated health issues and medical bills; they should have had appropriate coverage.
At the end of the day, it is a personal failing.
****
And, since you want to play with hypotheticals, "what if" they just took all their money and blew it in Las Vegas?
Not everyone makes enough to save a million dollars or more. Not everyone has a pension. Not everyone has a high IQ. Not everyone has good health even when they are young. Again your posts come off as if everyone starts life on equal footing, has the same life with involved parents who instill value on academics, hlp with homework, teach about savings. If you did, you are ahead of the game but there are millions of people who start out behind and never catch up.
What could my mother have done to save a million dollars for retirement?
If they "got whammied," they clearly should have saved more. The entire purpose of health insurance is to pay for unanticipated health issues and medical bills; they should have had appropriate coverage.
At the end of the day, it is a personal failing.
****
And, since you want to play with hypotheticals, "what if" they just took all their money and blew it in Las Vegas?
Well, what is "enough"? Since there is no way to know how long we're going to live or what may or may not befall us there is no way to know what "enough" is.
A person who retires at 65 with a 300K in retirement savings will have saved more than enough if they turn around and die at 66 with most of their money unspent. They won't have nearly enough if they wind up living until 100.
Unless you have a crystal ball or fabulously wealthy you won't know if you have enough until well into the future.
You might have saved enough, more than enough or not enough. Who knows?
I need to do more due diligence, but the demented grandmother and grandfather have always split money. Our best guess is they have about $100k in checking each - no other investments, but no one has accesses to their finances to confirm anything. Grandfather won't pay a penny for her treatment. She's demented to the point that she doesn't know what money even is now. She has no one else on her accounts, so no one can access her money.
She fell a few weeks ago. She's in a rehab facility, but will be required to leave next Friday. Where do you send someone like this? She's not poor enough for Medicaid without clawbacks, but her money is inaccessible. The husband won't pay. Only 1/5 kids are financially able to cover the costs of private pay, and he won't do it.
What do you do here?
Besides talking with social workers at nursing homes on how to proceed, you could also talk to and consult with social workers who work for the county where your grandmother resides.
You could talk on the phone with a county social worker.
and also maybe talk with the social worker or liaison at the rehab facility for advice where your grandmother is being released from. (if one exists at the rehab facility)
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