A hidden WTAF in geri-dreaming is the cost and application of home health care. It is off the charts expensive. It’s like taking a big bag of moola marked “golden years dough” and cutting a hole in the bottom of it and watching in horror as the entire bag is emptied.

You’re in luck if the care you need is for something medical — skilled nursing home care is usually covered by Medicare, which is a great relief for a medically-induced, short-term situation. But that hole in the bottom of the bag gets much bigger if you or your loved one just needs help with butt-wiping or getting to the kitchen without falling or with some chronic disorder that inhibits but is not life-threatening. The bottom about falls out of the bag if that non-skilled nursing care is needed 24-hours a day. If you estimate care costs that are $25 an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week that’s a whopping $600 a day, $4,200 a week and $218,400 a year.

And you may say something like, “it’s only temporary, this couldn’t possibly last forever,” chances are you are very, very wrong. See the thing about planning care is that you just. Don’t. Know. It could be six weeks or it could be six years.

“I just plan to age in place.” That plan is an illusion in my most humble pre-geri opinion. Better said is something more realistic like this. “I plan to age in place and I have major savings…like MAJOR, BIG BUCKS SAVINGS… in place to pay for this lifestyle and I understand completely the potholes.”

Potholes like this one: in-home care is fluid and unpredictable. Go with a care company, which I would advise, and you won’t have the same person for long stretches of time as you might have hoped. Believe it or not, home health care is not a glamorous, high paying, feel-good kind of wonder-job. Employees come and go because it’s that kind of business. But there is management consistency, and if someone can’t make it to your house to look after you, it’s the company’s problem….which is a big relief to your people. Go with a “freelancer” unicorn-type of individual caregiver and you have potentials of that uninsured person getting hurt on the job and suing you and your family and wait — this ONE person is going to be caring for you for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Not a likely scenario. Plus, the person they’ll be calling when they can’t make it to work one morning is your stressed out offspring, who will have to rearrange their day to facilitate yours.

Aging in place is a pie in the sky plan unless you’ve played that “What If” game thoroughly and thoughtfully. What have you learned about aging in place? I’d love to learn from others’ experiences. #grandplans

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/…/in-home-care-cost.html