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years for commercial policies (the federal
government retirees have their own rules).
The insurers reason that the average nursing home stay is about 2.5 years, thus the
five-year limit. Practically speaking, unless
you are both healthy and seriously rich, you
cannot get a policy without a time limit.
About now, I hope you are considering
your Superfecta for the Preakness and Belmont.
The aged who have children consider
them to be the ultimate long term care
insurance. My patients – particularly the
women of a certain age – fret severely about
their lives, and also about their own savings, which may be rapidly disappearing to
care for their aging parents. Women who
have managed to retire at 52 with a schoolteacher’s pension have a source of income,
but not a savings account that will stand
up to the demands of both their parents’
needs and their own, eventually. Caregiving
children get depressed. They are pulled in
all directions. Their own imagined golden
days of retirement fun often fail to stack
up against the realities of grandchildren
care, aged relative care, ailing spouse care,
the travails of their grown children who
suddenly need them more than ever, and
limited time and money. They try to live
up to idealized standards of perfection and
feel heavily criticized by home health agencies or friends who seem to think that their
demented fathers must never be left alone.
The working baby boomers must deal with
all of this, plus the awful stress of flying off to
Buffalo on business, only to be called by the
neighbor or the ER about a crisis involving
falling down, or failure to open the door, or
wandering, or worse.
fault, but are the natural history of the involved illness. People who have earned their
ill health by a lifetime of bad habits should,
in reality, expect bad things to happen more
often, and sooner. Daughters and sons who
can grasp this concept feel less guilty. Antidepressants can improve their sense of
constant overwhelming stress. I only wish
I had a horde of aides to offer them real live
help, which is what they truly need.
The bottom line is, guard your health
with your life – literally. You can’t afford
not to. LM
Note: Dr. Barry practices Internal Medicine
with Norton Community Medical AssociatesBarret. She is a clinical associate professor
at the University of Louisville School of
Medicine, Department of Medicine.
All I can counsel is to have reality-based
expectations. People whose health has failed
– for whatever reason – have bad things
happen to them that are not their daughters’
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