We Simply Cannot Believe We Are Getting Older – A Conversation Overheard
A few days ago, I overheard a woman who looked as if she were in her 50s talking on the subway to another woman who looked to be in her 50s.
One told the other, “My mother is coming to New York. But she’ll have a hard time getting around. She can’t climb up stairs, or walk so good.”
The other woman asked, “Why not? The first woman said, “Her leg is still infected.” “Still?” asked the second woman. “But it’s been infected for months. When will it clear up?”
The first woman tried to explain to the second woman that, sometimes, people in their 70s have health problems that stick around for months, or years, even though the patient follows doctors’ orders and takes the right medicines.
The second woman, who was starting to get on in years herself, and might be rapidly aging out of a chance to get through the long-term care insurance (LTCi) medical underwriting process, seemed to have a hard time absorbing the idea that, toward the end of life, people may not get better.
Maybe that kind of defensive optimism about health problems is one of the psychological obstacles to people buying, or even thinking about buying, LTCI.
Many people just have a hard time imagining that anyone will need care for the long-term. They assume that people will just apply a little elbow grease to getting better, and, of course, get better. But at some point, sadly, most of us stop getting better.
That is what Long-Term Care is, not necessarily getting older, but having some chronic condition that does not end our life, but makes our life so difficult we need help. At some point we will simply not be able to jump as high, walk as far, perhaps not bathe or dress ourselves as easily as we once did, and need some help.
Once this happens, it is too late to insure for the cost of such care which can be far more than many of us ever earned in a full year on our jobs. In fact, it is one of main the reasons people quickly spend through their life’s savings, and end up on a government assistance program called Medicaid.
If you are in your 40’s or 50’s, or 60’s if still healthy enough, why not investigate the insurance that pays for LTC? You probably need less of it than you imagine, because when you cannot do traveling, or playing with the toys, vehicles, etc. a surprising amount of available income can be redirected towards the expense of LTC.
Even if you wish to protect your nest egg for heirs, the income (yield) can go towards the bills as well. Insurance simply makes up the shortfall so you don’t spend down to impoverishment.
For more information, visit www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com or call 920 884-3030 to investigate with the help of an expert in this field who can give appropriate direction.
