It’s Never Too Early to Start Planning for Long Term Care, Part 2
To help you best plan for your long-term care, we’ve pulled together a list of important things you should know and can do between the ages of 51 and 64 that will make tomorrow a whole lot easier.
Things You Should Know
- Medicare only pays for long-term care if you require skilled services or rehabilitative care and Medicare does not pay for non-skilled assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL), which make up the majority of long-term care services. Read the section on Medicare for more information.
- Long-term-care may cost more than you think. Read more about Costs of Care.
- There are many different ways to receive care and many different settings in which to receive it. To learn more about different care setting, see the Where You Can Receive Care section of the site.
- Where you live matters – your ability to stay at home may depend on the layout of your home, especially the bathrooms. Refer to the Staying in Your Homepage for ideas.
- Planning for long-term care can protect your family from the financial impact of paying for care and the emotional impact of making decisions for you. Review the How to Decide section for more information.
- By obtaining an Advanced Care Directive you can inform your family or loved ones about how to make important health decisions for you, should you no longer be able to make those decisions for yourself. Consult the Advance Care Plan Considerations page for more information.
- By taking an inventory of your resources, you can determine how you will pay for services and who you can count on to assist. Options exist for pre-funding the care you need such as insurance or savings. Refer to the Costs & How to Pay section for more information.
Things You Can Do
First, obtain an Advanced Care Directive for advice on . See Advanced Care Plan Considerations for guidelines and seek the advice of an elder care attorney.
Then, make a plan for how you will pay for services. In considering Costs of Care, you can investigate
- Long-term care insurance
- Using Life Insurance to Pay for Long-term Care
- Annuities
- Reverse Mortgages
- Home modifications to help with Staying in Your Home
Learn how you may be able to reduce some risks to your brain at brainhealth.gov in order to prevent dementia and maintain your best mental health.
If you need legal assistance in managing an estate, trust or other elder law issue, the Law Office of Scott C. Painter can help. We specialize in elder law issues ranging from nursing home planning, guardianship, wills, trusts, estates, veteran’s benefits, and other related legal matters. A call to us is free, and the best advice is to act now to educate yourself and your options. Waiting to seek legal counsel may limit your options and be costly. Call now for your free consultation 610-378-5140 or visit https://painterelderlawpc.com/ for more information.