I'm hearing a lot about people entering retirement homes/communities and I have something I'm very curious about.

Seems to me it isn't truly in your best interest to work very hard all your life and get a pension upon retirement... when a care community will dwindle it away until you have no more money. At that time they let medicare take over.

The people who don't have a pension go in without their hard working pension money and get the same treatment from the very beginning without paying anything.

This could be a very touchy subject, but I don't think it's fair for the ones who've worked their whole lives with a very strong work ethic.

Any thoughts?

Just read this and hope you can understand my point...

I was a registered nurse at nineteen. I went from that to healthcare administration then started my own military contracting firm which contracted for medical services all over the world.

I've been a consultant to long term care facilities and have experienced healthcare from lots of viewpoints. The more I have learned about the system, the more appalled I have become. The way our country treats the working eldery is shameful.

It varies from state to state, but in my state, a person who never worked a day in their life, never owned a home, and collected welfare from birth can get into the best of long term care facilities and all of their expenses including medications and various therapies paid for from Medicare. They get the most expensive of drugs and the very best of facilities if they just work the system (and many are experts at working the system because they've done it for years).

Others who have worked hard all of their lives, bought homes, paid taxes, and paid into social security expecting to be cared for when they are older are shocked to discover that none of the cost of residing in a long term care facility including medications is covered. The cost of just being in a long term care facility is thousands of dollars per month and many hard working people wind up selling their homes, their cars and everything they own to support their care. Eventually even their self respect is lost when their own funds are exahusted and they too must go on Welfare.

I know there are times when Welfare is the only option and I respect that. However, a system that punishes those who work and rewards those who don't is just plain wrong.

smile

I just noticed that I used the term Medicare in the third paragraph of my last post. That should read Medicaid or whatever the state's welfare supported medical program is called. Medicare which pays for almost no long term expenses is supported by Social Security whereas Medicaid or whatever term is used in your state is supported by Dept. of Social Services (Welfare) and pays for almost the enire cost of long term care.

Sorry.

smile

DJ, how do you feel about that?

I just feel sorry for people like my dad who worked his whole life to have a nice pension and then it can possibly be piddled away. I guess that's what they worked for (peace of mind to care for themselves unitl the bitter end) but somehow it doesn't seem fair.

We boomers already know that life isn't fair anyway!

Yes, I can relate to this post. Two parents who
worked all their lives, retired and most of it was spent on a nursing home after they had some
vacations. I wasn't thrilled either to see how everyone was treated and was appalled at what I heard. Thank goodness mom was easy to take care of
and had a great personality. I was told by everyone how much they loved her.
At first she was able to pay and then I'm sure later went on Medicaid. This next thing always made me laugh later. My father had a bumper sticker that said "we are spending our children's inheritance"
Maggie

I have some personal experience here but not vast. My in-laws lived in kansas and were moved to Massachusettes (where most of the family resides) to move into long term care for alzheimers. They worked and saved all their lives and paid for every cent except when they were hospitalized, they went into rehab where medicare paid for their care until no physical progress was being made on their part. Then the folks starting paying again. They were both in and out of the hospital and were in rehab frequently. The long term care place fought with us about paying them when the folks were hopitalized wor in rehab. We won some and lost some. Both have passed away.

My Mom is in a retirement community for Masons. She lives in an independent apartment and her purchase price is refunded at 90% or she can use it similar to a reverse mortgage if her funds get low at the end. Their is a health care facility attached but no living expenses are medicare funded.

I have learned that in MD no medicare pays for long term care. Once all funds are exhasuted, then medicaid takes over and you must move to a medicaid funded facility. I have seen one and would not want my dog there.

Remember this is a limited view but I have worked with 2 grandmothers at differnet times, plus in-laws plus my Mom.

It is sad to see their money going the way it does. And you can "hide soem funding" but in many cases you end up in an approved but not acceptable place.

All of it makes me think about my own situation and trying to take care of it up front. Kinda scary too.

I have stood back reading these post not wanting to get involved. It is so near to me and at the same time NOT dear to me. My grandmother was in an assisted living facility and it cost her 40K per year of her own money the two years she was there. And we got a discount.

She received terrible care 90% of the time, and the "rules" there, along with the employees working there, were moving targets. They changed almost daily and I think they made them up as they went along. The staff hated each other and were constantly bickering. The turn overs were unreal.

I went every weekend to visit her staying all day and into the night, Sat and Sundays. My Mother went every day. We tried to make up for the lack of care and found ourselves being depended on by the other residents as well. Of course we fell in love with the other patients and mourn for them when they passed. This in itself was depressing.

My grandmother fell numerous times and no one could ever give a reason. One time while visiting, we found ALL of the alzheimers patients locked in their rooms. When we questioned it, we were told the STATE demanded it. As it turned out, NOT.

We became a torn in their side for two years. My other sisters lived there (I lived 60 miles away) and they were constantly popping in at all hours of the day and night until we had the staff so confused they didn't know when we would arrive. My grandmother's care improved. We saw abuse, neglect, and occassionally, we saw tenderness and love from some of the workers. It took every dime my grandmother had and she was 98 when she died.

Other side of the coin:

My Dad is in the VA home here. Some things are not as good as I wish they were, but over all this enivironment is soooo much better and the STATE DOES pay for part of his bill there because he is a veteran. The rest of it comes from Mother/Dad's own money. The people there, for the most part, are loving and kind. I would pay them any thing I own to have them be that way if I had to...but, I don't. I have come to know and love them all. It is far from perfect, but Daddy is happy there. I know this was more about money than anything else, but the other part needs/has to be considered as well. Okay, I'm done. Whew...

I guess the financial arrangements in retirement centers vary, but as I understand it, the 90% refund policy policy means that 90% of the purchase price of the condo or apartment is refunded if the owner becomes incapacitated and enters a long term (nursing home) facility which many of the retirement centers have attached.

The elderly person who can afford a non-subsidized residence in a retirement center, probably has worked hard and saved and been proud to be on Social Security/Medicare rather than Welfare/Medicaid which is what people with no assets who have not paid into Social Security receive.

There's a significant difference in benefits for Medicare/Social Security which is paid for by the working population and administered by the Federal Govt. and Medicaid/Welfare which is paid for from our tax dollars and administered by the state.

Social Security/Medicare pays for only part of the cost of medical care and only for care that is temporary and has an end in sight. (The machinations health care providers go through to prove that the care is temporary and has an end in sight is ridiculous. It's time consuming and expensive). Medicare/Social Security does not pay for prescription drugs or long term care.

Medicaid/Welfare pays for both prescription drugs and long term care.

So if a person on Social Security/Medicare pays $100,000 cash for a home in a retirement facility and then winds up incapacitated and in a nursing home, they would get $90,000 back. But that amount would probably be depleted in less than two years or maybe even less than a year in a long term (nursing home)facility. Only when all of the funds are depleted and all the assets are gone, will the person become eligible for Welfare/Medicare which will then kick in and pay for long term care and prescription drugs.

So those already on Welfare who may never have paid into Social Security and who have no assets at all get their long term care and prescriptions paid for from day one whereas those on Social Security/Medicare who have paid into Social Security all of their life and saved and have assets wind up surrendering all they have worked for including their pride in being independent in order to afford the long term care and prescription drugs they must have to survive.

I understand that there are cases when people have no alternative to Welfare, but it doesn't seem fair to punish those who paid into Social Security by forcing them to surrender all they have accumulated over a lifetime of work to the health care system.

Veterans get a bad deal too. Seems to me that they have already paid the price for all the health care they will ever need. After all, they risked their life to defend our country and preserve our way of life. Then when they are elderly and need long term care, they too have to surrender all their assets in order to wind up on Welfare/Medicaid.

I just heard on the news that a bill to reimburse Medicare patients for prescription drugs the way Medicaid patients are now reimbursed has passed and may become law soon. Maybe that will equalize the situation, but I'm sure not counting on it.

Sorry for the long boring post. It's just that I am in the middle of that so often and see the havoc it wreaks on lives. No one seems to want to deal with it because we all think we'll be independent and live forever, but we will all be facing it soon either with our parents or for our selves.

There are ways around all that which many of you probably already know. Maybe someone has had experience with that.....