Big costs can arise for families in many different contexts. One such context is the care of an aging loved one. There are all kinds of costs, such as costs related to long-term care and expenses for less intensive forms of paid assistance, that might come up in connection to a person’s care needs as they get older. These costs can hit rather high levels. This can particularly be the case if a senior ends up developing a chronic condition or other things that create special added care needs. A recent Forbes article noted that the costs a senior and their family could face in relation to elder care could easily end up in the realm of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, expenses related to care of an elderly loved one can rival, or possibly even surpass, one of the other major expenses for families: the cost of raising a child.
The Forbes article noted, however, that there are big differences between the costs of raising children and the costs of elderly care when it comes to the availability of government help for such costs.
There are a wide range of different programs out there for helping families with costs related to raising children. However, the available avenues for government help with costs for elderly care are less numerous. Also, the avenues that are available tend to have some significant limitations connected to them. For example, Medicaid coverage for seniors has very strict eligibility requirements and Medicare generally does not cover long-term care.
Do you think there should be more government programs here in the U.S. for assisting families with elder care costs?
The limited nature of government assistance for elder care costs is one of the many reasons why it can be key for families to do careful advanced planning when it comes to possible future elder care expenses for aging family members. Such planning can be important in trying to maintain eligibility for the assistance that is out there and addressing concerns that government assistance won’t be available for or able to help with. Such planning could involve many things, including the use of trusts.
Massachusetts seniors and their families can go to skilled elder law attorneys for help with advanced planning for elder care expenses.