As medical technology continues to advance and people are able to fight off diseases and recover from conditions that could have meant their death 30, 40, 50 years ago, you begin to wonder if your thoughts on long-term care planning are also in the past.
People are now living longer and fuller lives because of breakthroughs in medical science. Dr. Bruce Chernoff, President of The Scan Foundation recently spoke on PBS News Hour’s Fixing America’s Long-Term Care System segment and said, “There is a real misconception, we all have built this architecture in our mind that I’ll live a really really full life, then I’ll hit that cliff, and it will be done.” Dr. Chernoff continues his thoughts by saying, “if you look back a generation or two, people actually did live a pretty full life, and often had a very serious event from which they might not survive, or might not live a very long time.”
He contends, because this is how people have grown up, they have built a model in their mind that says, this is what happened to my parents, this is what will happen to me. This could explain why that even though statistics show 7 out of 10 people age 65 and older will need some form of long-term care assistance, the vast majority of them have not planned for it, and usually just change the subject when the topic comes up. According to Dr. Chernoff, because of medical breakthroughs and the fact that people are living longer, it is time to change that mental model.
The other issue Dr. Chernoff brings up is the lack of education on the topic of long-term care planning. Many people simply do not know what is available to them, what options they have when it comes to planning, and what considerations need to be made before that health event takes place, and you need to access long-term care services for yourself or a loved one.
Have you taken a few minutes out of your day to design what your future will look like should you require long-term care services? If you have not, there is no better time than right now to click the link below and schedule a free no obligation review for long-term care planning in California today.
You are planning to live a full life, make sure it is how you envisioned it no matter what happens.
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