MyDignity: HOMECARE ASSISTANCE What you need to know
Fact 1
Besides the inevitable frailty and aging, home care assistance benefits also provides vital coverage for life occurrences that happen at any age such as accidents, injuries, fractures, illnesses, and recovery from operations.
Fact 2
Both Living Benefits and Individual Health plans have GAPS in coverage as these plans are not intended or designed to cover expensive Home Care costs.
Fact 3
Government home care is limited at best. As an example, there is no support for instrumental activities of daily living such as laundry, grocery shopping, and meal preparation.
Fact 4
Given the choice, everyone wants to remain at home when the time comes that we need assistance for personal care as opposed to being in a facility. Studies continue to demonstrate that receiving care at home rather than at a facility contributes to longevity and quality of life.
Fact 5
Family members prefer to be care managers for a loved one and not caregivers as they have their own lives and responsibilities.
Fact 6
70% of individuals 65 and over will require some type of personal care in their lifetime when they are unable to take care of themselves. To put this into perspective, 4% of people will experience a car accident in their lifetime.
The 2 ways to qualify for benefits:
Physically
When the insured needs the help of another to accomplish at least two of the following activities of daily living (loss of independence):
n Transferring n Toileting
n Bathing n Continence
n Dressing n Eating
Generally, one loses their broader mobility skills first, which affects transferring and bathing simultaneously, followed closely by the loss of finer motor skills which in turn affects one’s ability to dress and feed themselves. The loss of self-toileting skills can be either a function of loss of mobility and balance or a consequence of the normal aging process.
Cognitively
When the insured has a loss of ability to reason, perceive, think, reflect or remember.
People prefer to be cared for in their own home rather than being relegated to a facility. The cost for home care varies largely according to location and the type of care required. Today the cost for care can range from $500 a week for minimal care such as assistance with bathing, light housekeeping, meal preparation and laundry to $1,500+ per week which might include skilled nursing care, specialized medication administration and wound management. The cost in the future is anticipated to increase in proportion to the demand. This brings us to a very sobering fact: The coming demographic with the avalanche of boomers will be unprecedented and will affect all levels of health care, both acute and long term.
Each one of us bears a responsibility to act as our own advocate and plan for our own care when the time comes. Many mistakenly believe the government will take care of their needs when the time comes. They could not be more wrong. Government care is limited at best and covers only the most basic care.