This was my reply to a friends' post about moving a lady to an assisted living facility. You can read his post here.
http://analytixman.blogspot.com/…dying.html
Sadly, most assisted living and long term care facilities have rooms such as you describe. While the fat cats' pockets get fatter, our elderly and disabled continue to get the shaft.
The apartments in the place where I work are not like this. But said apartments are, to be blunt, hella expensive. The apartments in the independent living area are about $3500 a month. The ones in assisted living are $6000, and the rooms in long term care are $9000. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time managing the $1100 I pay between mortgage and lot rent on my mobile home. (I know you wouldn't do this, but if anyone else feels the need to refer to me as 'trailer park trash,' so be it.)
None of the people I work with could afford an apartment or room in the place where we work.
Its scary. I have long term care insurance and a retirement plan but when I look at what this brings as compared to the cost, it ain't much. I do try to save but there's not that much if anything left over to save when the bills are paid.
I worry about what's going to happen with my father. He had a stroke four and a half years ago and is badly handicapped. My mother is his 24-7 caregiver. No home health agency will deal with him because he's so difficult to do transfers with. I pulled a muscle in my chest helping to transfer him. If something happened to my mother he'd have to go into a care facility because he needs someone with him 24-7. My brother lives in a different state and of course I work a full time job. There's no way we could swing it. And that's a sad thing to have to admit.
My parents had $300,000 in savings which sounds like a lot but its quickly being eaten up by my fathers' medical costs.
I don't know just how it can be done but something really needs to change in the way our most vulnerable populations are treated.
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