Are You A Potential Long Term Care Patient?

Long term care is almost always associated with people with Alzheimer’s disease if not heart diseases but it is important to note that teenagers and young adults are likely to acquire the service, too.

According to the statistics of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 40% of the population receiving long term care (LTC) comprises of individuals from the 18 to 64 age bracket. Various reasons can be attributed to young people’s need for LTC and one of these is spinal injury sustained from a fall or vehicular accident. Other reasons include multiple sclerosis or early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s not the purpose of this article to scare young people but to open them to the facts of LTC since many misconceptions continue to envelop people’s minds. Generations ago, LTC was identified with nursing homes but nowadays it is offered in multiple settings to suit the preference of most Americans which is in-home care.

For instance, a 78-year-old elderly woman suffering extreme osteoporosis cannot clean her house anymore, let alone cook her own meals and wash her own laundry so she acquired homemaker services from a neighborhood home health care agency.

Meanwhile, an 82-year-old man who has come down with Alzheimer’s always leaves his house in the morning and if not for the traffic enforcer he would’ve been lost forever. Afraid that they might lose their father, the old man’s adult children have decided to put him in a nursing home that is situated just a block from their elder brother’s abode.

If you notice, both elderly folks cited above were not just thrown into an LTC setting that will put them in a disadvantage. Their interest and welfare were put into consideration but this does not go for everybody.

Only people with a concrete plan for their health care, such as a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy, get to make choices afterwards. Those who don’t have a plan for their future will either depend on their loved ones for care and eventually make their lives miserable or, perhaps, go to Medicaid if they meet the program’s asset limit requirement.

When Should One Plan for Long Term Care?

People who are aware of their genetic predisposition to a certain type of illness, would probably plan it early but majority of the healthier ones have the tendency to defer it.

What everybody should understand is the fact that not only people who are genetically predisposed to a serious health disorder will require LTC. Even the person who hits the gym every morning can need it in the future. Some things we subconsciously do can affect our minds and bodies without us knowing it that is why undergoing a regular checkup with your doctor is very important.

In other words, anybody is a potential candidate for long term care so be sure that you are properly equipped when it’s your turn, otherwise you could lose everything which you had worked so hard to acquire.