Many people put a great deal of effort into saving and planning for retirement in order to be sure their needs are met. My parents dutifully saved and paid their long-term care premiums in order not to be a burden on me (as an only child) in their later years. Yes, I’m lucky!

I have also recently spoken to a financial planner about not only our retirement plan, but also starting our own long-term care plans even though we’re not really in a financial position to do so right now. One thing’s for sure, though — retirement, and especially long term care, costs a great deal of money. and many seniors are spending their life savings on the latter as Medicare and Social Security don’t cover long nursing home stays:

Over 20 years, Paggi, a senior care coordinator), has seen many seniors spend almost their last dollar on personal care at home or an assisted-living community before turning to a nursing home and ultimately relying on Medicaid, the health care program for the poor.

Long-term care often involves many tasks that are imperative to someone’s well-being such as bathing, dressing, feeding, etc. yet these types of tasks don’t require a “skilled” (licensed) professional to perform them for the chronically ill. Therefore, our current insurance system, including Medicare, doesn’t pay for it. People must either pay out of pocket, quickly depleting their resources, or most often, this care is provided by unpaid family members.

We found this out when my mother was ill and dying. My dad worked and he couldn’t take care of her alone full-time for several reasons, but she couldn’t be alone. She had no skilled needs, she mostly needed what’s called “companion” or “custodial” care when she was at home, but she was not ready for hospice. They ended up having to pay a sitter many thousands of dollars out of pocket.

The government is struggling with long term care issues as the number of aging Boomers rises. People are exhausting their savings in order to be covered by a Medicaid system that is already struggling to pay for the millions of uninsured Americans.

Most agree that some sort of long term care reform is needed as many people can’t afford the expensive long term care insurance premiums. Reform ideas include more federal money for home and community-based care, as well as better health coverage for preventing chronic conditions to protect seniors from financial devastation.