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Is Assisted Living Com all it's cracked up to be?
QUESTION: The older I get the lazier I get. I'm getting sick
and tired of having to tell someone when it's
time for my slippers, or my mint julep, or when
it's time to turn down the bed. Domestic help
is getting very difficult to come by and they never
really respect their betters anymore. Has anyone
noticed?
I think I'm ready for what I've heard of as
"Assisted Living". Is it all it's cracked up to be?
Where do they have this assisted living?
Would I qualify? Maybe under Medicare?
If Chamblee got into the Assisted Living program
there in the Columbia, surely I, as a member of
the moral majority, can get in too.
ANSWER: Unless you've got lotsa bucks, like Jim, forget the assisted living - at
least in the long term. Medicare only pays for nursing home care, and then
only for a short period of time for the acute phase of the "illness" or
problem. They don't pay for "extended" care - nursing home or assisted
living or any other kind. You have to pay your own way (with or without the
help of insurance) for assisted living and for extended nursing home care.
If you become unable to care for yourself, have no one to care for you, and
have no real money or assets, then you can receive Medicaid, which does
cover long term care. We've got a county old folks home here that is mostly
occupied by Medicaid patients. The private nursing homes are occupied by
mostly private pay patients, with a token number of Medicaid patients and a
fair number of the short term medicare patients. None of the assisted living
places have any patients at all that are Medicaid or Medicare patients. They
are 100% private pay and run upwards of 3-5 grand a month per person. Pretty
lucrative racket. Apparently taking or maybe just outright stealing money
from old folks is easier and more legal than taking candy from a baby - as
long as you claim it's for assisted living.
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