This sobering article is about a brutal irony of the age wave flooding the ranks of the U.S. population. The hands-on home health care workers who tend to the old and sick are giving up on the profession at an alarming rate. 40% are gone after just one year. With an average salary of $20,000/year, who could blame them?
This inconvenient attrition of a key player in the aging process presents the “soon to be old” with the distinct possibility of winding up “unattended” at the worse possible time. Now what?
Maybe it’s time to upgrade the profession with new training programs, standardized credentials, expanded responsibilities and salaries that sustain a career. To accomplish this, some forward thinking organization will have assume the role of early adapter and develop a new professional model, field test it and document its advantages and viability.
It’s better to acquire long-term care insurance when you still at your 30’s or 40’s
The answer is generally yes due to lower premiums at younger ages combined with the ability to lock in coverage before any changes in health that would disqualify you for coverage..however, you would want to make sure you obtain a policy that includes a cost of living rider that increases the policy benefit to keep up with the cost of long term care and, if possible, a return of premium rider in the event you never use the coverage…LTC insurance should be looked at as one piece of a comprehensive LTC program…other pieces could include a differed annuity, a reverse mortgage and a separate LTC fund…This diversified, early funded approach with a long investment horizon is essential given the projected increases in cost of long term care over the next 20 years…