What is long-term care?
Perhaps no other subject regarding retirement planning is as financially challenging as planning for long- term care. The standard explanation is long-term care is chronic care that is needed when you are unable to perform 2 out of 6 activities of daily living including, bathing, dressing, transferring (from bed to chair), toileting, continence, and eating, without human assistance. You can also need long-term care due to a cognitive disorder or a mental and nervous disorder. That is the technical explanation.
The truth is long-term care is a family issue. It is care that impacts almost everyone in your family, and perhaps even your friends. Have you ever been a caregiver? Have you ever been in a situation where someone you loved depended upon you for their very existence? If you are a mom or a dad, the unequivocal answer is yes. When a baby is born, it is totally and completely dependent upon their parents or their caregiver to provide the most basic necessities of life. Without someone to feed them, bathe them, dress them, and care for their needs that child cannot survive. It is the hope the person who is providing that care is someone who loves them, because studies have shown that even with the most basic needs met, a child who is not given love in addition to the basic necessities will die!
As we return, usually later in life, but tragically not always, to needing that same level of help, we need long-term care once again. And perhaps, maybe even more, we still need love. Long-term care is about caring for those we love when they are in need of assistance with the most basic human needs. Therefore, we submit planning for long-term care is far more than a series of financial decisions. It is about how we plan to care for, and perhaps even more important, how our planning will allow those who love us to care for us when we need care. The decision to plan for long-term care is truly not a selfish decision. It is a loving and caring decision for our loved ones.
