Healthcare Retirement Planning

Jennifer Blanchard talks about becoming better prepared financially to meet your healthcare needs.

Rebecca Fox: The time we spent and enjoying retirement has often been referred to as the golden years but for an increasing number of people the reality is there’s too little gold in the bank to stop working. Welcome to icyou on topic. Several recent surveys indicate the cost of retirement and in particular health care custom retirement is a growing concern for Americans. According to 2008 survey from the Employed Benefit Research Institute 43 % of workers are increasingly not confident about having enough money for Medical Expenses to help you become better prepared for Healthcare Cost and Retirement. We have on our studio today an adviser with the Common Wealth Financial Group, Jennifer Blanchard and Jennifer thank you so much for being here. Jennifer Blanchard: Thank you so much for having me, I’m happy to be here. Rebecca Fox: I’m really want to start with the basics what recommendations do you have for a person who maybe thinking towards planning for their Healthcare Cost and Retirement. Jennifer Blanchard: Well everyone’s situation is unique depending on your age and your health then your family history and your family situation, there are a lot of different options that you can consider, the important thing is to have a conversation with your family whether it’s you talking with your parents, that you’ll one day be taking cared of or you talking with your children that may one day be taking care of you. It’s just important to have that open conversation with your family. Rebecca Fox: From my prospective the numbers can seem very intimidating and I wanted to show our viewers this another report from the EBR where I calculated that a 65 year old men with Medicare and retiree health benefits who pays his own premiums will need $1200.00 in current savings to have a 50% chance of having enough money to cover health care expenses and retirement. For a woman in the same situation she would need $137,000.00 to have a 50% chance of having enough money. So in your opinion are these estimates reasonable? Jennifer Blanchard: Well they do seem reaonable because they’ve certainly done their research thoroughly but what they don’t take into account our Custodial Care Cost what this study takes into account are Medical Care Cost and those are things like short term hospital stays, doctor visit co- pays, medications, medical procedures, things of that nature but again when it doesn’t address is the cost of custodial care which is often referred to as long term care and with people requiring anywhere from two to five years of this type of care and retirement perhaps longer if they suffer from a disease such as Alzheimer’s the cause of this type of care can greatly impact what someone needs to having savings in retirement to cover their total Healthcare costs. Rebecca Fox: I hear a lot about long term care and I went online and I pulled up some numbers and the Department of Health and Human Services said at leas 70% of people over 65 will need some sort of long term care services sometime in their lifetime so what exactly is long term care? Jennifer Blanchard: Long term care refers to health with a routine activities of daily living or ADL’s that it’s due to a physical impairment or a CAD impairment that’s expected to last longer than a specific period of time like 90 days. Those activities of daily living are bathing, eating, dressing, toileting, continents and transferring and there are three different levels of care that you can receive, skilled, intermediate and custodial and skilled care is care that’s provided by licensed or skilled professional it’s considered medically necessary but it does an address those activities of daily living. Intermediate care is for more stable patients that require less specialized procedures than patients that require skilled nursing care. And then lastly custodial care you can think of as informal care giving that can be performed by a certified caregiver but often times as performed by family member and that is care that refers specifically to the activities of daily living. Rebecca Fox: I understand people can by long term care insurance to cover the cost, why should someone consider this option? Jennifer Blanchard: Well again everyone’s situation is unique there are lot of different options that they can consider to meet these needs. The important thing is to work with a specialized professional that can help give some guidance in this area and regardless of what this statistics say the chances are of someone needing this type of card, the reality is that if they do the results can be quite emotionally and financially devastating to the family. Rebecca Fox: All right so start the conversation now. Jennifer Blanchard: Absolutely. Rebecca Fox: Jennifer thanks so much for being here we appreciate your time. Jennifer Blanchard: You’re welcome, thank you. Rebecca Fox: And you could find more stories featuring Jennifer Blanchard and videos about long term care here on icyou.com for icyou on topic I’m Rebecca Fox.