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Topic of the Month: May 2010
How to Get People Talking About Long-Term Care

If people aren't eager to talk about long-term care, it may be because they don't want to think of themselves as old or dependent upon someone else.

Here's how to begin a conversation that can help them realize the importance of planning ahead.

Establish the Need
Most people believe they're going to live a long life, but few stop to think what that may mean.

Conversation Starter

  

Let's talk about how your plan to live a long life could impact
your spouse and your children.

Point out that people who live a long life get old. And getting older means they may need help. Get them to talk about:

  • Where they want to live
  • Who will care for them

Discuss the Consequences
A long-term care situation doesn't only impact the individual needing care. It also can impact the family. If you or someone you know had a long-term care experience, now is the time to share it.

Conversation Starter

  

Many of my clients have experienced the emotional, physical and financial toll of caring for a loved one. I want to make sure what happened to their families doesn't happen to yours.

Discuss how a long-term care situation can:

  • Affect the caregiver through missed work, lost wages or exhaustion
  • Cause family disagreements or hard feelings when one person assumes a greater share of care giving duties
  • Deplete the family's savings or require assets to be liquidated to pay for care

Present the Solution
Health insurance doesn't pay for long-term care services. Medicare coverage is limited. And relying on Medicaid may mean spending down assets to qualify.

Conversation Starter

  

How do you plan to pay for the care you may need someday?

Stress that long-term care insurance may be the best way to help people:

  • Get the care they need in the setting they prefer
  • Avoid the risk of depleting a lifetime of savings
  • Continue to live life according to plan