Taking Care of Mom and Dad: Health Care and Medical Coverage Introduction
My dad had always been independent, even after my mother died. When he had the stroke, my brother and I were shocked to find out that he hadn't applied for Medicare. He'd had health insurance as part of his retirement package...but the company where he'd worked for 30 years had eliminated that in '96. Since then, he'd been going without. No doctor visits...no nothing. We had to file the Medicare paperwork while he was in the hospital. Luckily, the hospital had a benefits person on staff who helped us out; she'd been through this before and had all the government stuff on file.
Health care is the place to start when you're taking care of your aging parents. It's as important -- if not more important -- than money issues. People who are in their retirement years will sometimes take or stay in jobs because of the medical benefits they provide. Health coverage is that important.
Older people live in a more regulated world. In the United States, the federal government's Medicare system provides health insurance for most older people...and influences the coverage that everyone over 65 has.
In this chapter, we'll consider the various kinds of medical coverage that are available to older people. Then, we'll help you determine the level of your parents' existing medical coverage to see whether there's a shortfall or a windfall...and how to make up the difference if what they have isn't enough.
The number of North Americans living into their 80s and 90s is exploding. This trend translates into huge actuarial increases in the cost of retirement and retirement benefits plans. We'll see this same issue again and again in this book; but, in this chapter, we'll focus on what it means for medical coverage and health care.
According to the CPI-E index, a Bureau of Labor Statistics measure, inflation for the elderly rises faster than for the rest of the population. This is primarily due to higher medical costs. Retirees are paying higher deductibles and other payments for prescription drugs than ever before...and this will only get worse.
Health expenditure experts forecast 7 to 9 percent annual cost growth in health insurance premiums through the 2000s and 2010s. This is especially troubling to private-sector employers, who are reacting to these increases by reducing or eliminating the medical benefits they provide to their retired employees.
