Taking Care of Mom and Dad: Health Care and Medical Coverage Conclusion

Helping your parents get good health care and medical coverage isn't like shopping for your own health insurance. The main reason: Medicare influences the way that Americans over 65 get medical services (even if they don't use Medicare directly).

In order to help your parents, you need to know the basics about government insurance.

Another reason is that there's more abuse among agents and brokers selling health insurance to older people than among those who sell to the rest of the world. So, you'll need to help your parents be wary of scammers without becoming paranoid of being scammed.

Maintaining the best possible health is the most important aspect of life at any age. Poor health can make an older person's last years miserable. So, medical care is likely to be the place that you start helping your parents...and the place that emotional issues of privacy, independence and control first come into play.

In some cases, these issues come to hard point -- your parents have serious health or competency problems and someone needs to step into to help clean up the mess.

But, more often, the process is gradual. You're not sure how your parents are doing...and you're not sure it's appropriate to ask. One strategy for handling this situation: Educate yourself on the mechanics. Ask general questions about your parents' health coverage. Offer informed advice for what decisions they might make...and let them ask for more advice or help, as they feel they need it.