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Archives for December 2017

Caregiving for Elders, Not Children, Denies Women Paychecks

December 29, 2017 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Grandmother with WalkerFor decades, we’ve heard how women in the workplace were unable to keep pace with their male colleagues. We thought this was partly due to the demands of maternity leave and ongoing parenting responsibilities. Why then, when children left the home, did this pattern seem to continue into the later years of these career women? Enter the “elder-care crisis”, as described in a recent New York Times article.

The author addresses the rising trend of women shifting from child care to elder-care. Because many our aging Americans are unable to care for themselves, their care often falls to their wives and daughters. This results in reduced hours at work, lower paychecks and sometimes leaving their jobs altogether.

In case you’ve missed the statistics:

  • 25% of women aged 45 – 64 are caring for an older relative
  • 14% of women aged 35-55 are caring for an older relative
  • 10% of these women have reduced time at their paying jobs
  • 6% of these women quit their jobs

You can read more about the research here and here.

Who Provides the Care for our Elderly Family Members?

A graph in the NYT article dramatically illustrates that after rising for half a century, the labor force participation rate among prime-age women began to decline sharply in the early 2000’s – right around the time the time the elderly share of the population began to rise sharply.

It’s not a stretch to connect the dots. About 14 million older Americans currently can’t live independently and care for themselves. Unless they’ve purchased long term care insurance (LTCi), the burden of care weighs predominantly on their wives and daughters.

In his book “Who Will Care for Us?” Paul Osterman estimates that there are about 21 million family members caring for an adult relative for no pay. By 2040, he predicts demand for such care will rise to 34 million.

There are a variety of costs associated with caregiving tasks, from financial to emotional. This is one image provided by Merrill Lynch:

 

You can click here to find additional easy-to-read images.

Unlike the Boomers currently caring for their parents, their millennial children will not have as many siblings to help them care for their parents. Future elderly will also live longer, suggesting that there will be a lot of caregivers well into their 50’s juggling work with caring for children and parents.

The New York Times article ends on an unfortunate note, concluding that “private insurers are not the solution.” If you’ve been following me for any time at all, you know I am strongly in favor of using private insurance as a successful solution. In fact… I’ll take a deeper dive into this in a future blog post.

In the meantime, if you’d like to proactively prepare for the likelihood of needing some form of elder-care, please click here to receive your free LTCi quote.

 

 

Filed Under: Helpful Information About LTC, Long-Term Care Awareness Month, Uncategorized Tagged With: caregivers, Helpful Information About LTC, Long Term Care insurance

Astounding Knowledge Gap!

December 9, 2017 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, with a new diagnosis made every 66 seconds.   This comes from a poll released by Maria Shriver’s Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and the Bipartisan Policy Center. It’s got a lot of surprising information about the public’s lack of awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. When preparing for Alzheimer’s, we find ourselves using a lot of inaccurate information.

The Knowledge Gap is Huge!

According to the poll (October 2017), there is a significant chasm between commonly held beliefs about Alzheimer’s disease and the actual facts about Alzheimer’s. Let’s take a look at some of those myths versus facts:

Most women (over 70% polled) believe that symptoms don’t begin until their 60’s.

  • Actually, symptoms develop 20 – 30 years before diagnosis
  • Also, women are at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease, as 66% of diagnoses are women.

44% of Americans have no concerns about Alzheimer’s because it doesn’t run in their family.

  • Your genes do not accurately predict Alzheimer’s disease.

54% of those polled believe that the long term care costs will run around $25,000 per year.

  • In 2014, the average nursing home stay costs $87,000 per year.
  • In 2014, the cost of home health care costs $45,800 per year.

Preparing for Alzheimer’s

Once we have the facts around this insidious disease, we are better able to prepare for the possibility of living with Alzheimer’s.  You can click here to read the details of this poll and even download the key findings from the survey.

 

A future with Alzheimer’s disease is very likely, especially if you are female. Keep this in mind when planning your long term care options. Although most people (66%) want to be cared for by family members, few are having the conversation.

Taking steps to plan today can relieve your family of an unnecessary burden in the future. Plus, you’ll receive professional medical care, either at a facility or in the comfort of your home.

Now that you know, why would you wait?

Click here to receive your personal quote for Long Term Care Insurance.

Filed Under: Denial, Elephant in the Room, Helpful Information About LTC Tagged With: Denial, Helpful Information About LTC

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Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP
“The Queen, by Self-Proclamation, of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCi)”
404 Royal Bonnet
Ft. Myers, FL 33908

Phone: 713-988-4671
Fax: 281-829-7177

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

Email: honey@honeyleveen.com

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