Reducing Health Care Expenses
A high percentage of people who feel the need to consult with estate planning attorneys are very successful, and they understand the importance of preparation and intelligent investing. They are well aware of the risk-reward equation, and they only gamble when the odds are on their side. But even when you have done well and look forward to a comfortable retirement, you may be faced with some potentially daunting expenses depending on certain variables.
Being fully prepared for every eventuality is difficult because of the skyrocketing costs of medical treatment and long-term care. Even if you have Medicare and supplemental insurance out-of-pocket expenses are going up all the time, and the future of the health care system is largely up in the air as the political climate changes. In addition, the price of long-term care is extremely high and rising. A year in an assisted living facility went up by 5.2% in 2010 to around $40,000, and a private room in a nursing home rose by 4.6% to a national average of over $83,000 annually. These are some pretty large numbers and if you are planning for fifteen or twenty years down the road imagine what they will look like then.
None of us can do anything about these rising costs, but what we can do is eat that apple a day that keeps the doctor away. Older people tend to suffer from ill health, but sickness is not caused by age; an accumulation of unhealthy lifestyle choices has a whole lot to do with it. If you are 50 pounds overweight when you are 55 and you smoke, eat poorly, and live a largely sedentary lifestyle you are making some very poor financial decisions. If there was futures trading on the health of someone who fit the above description people would be betting on the hospital, right?
Everybody knows that they should care of themselves, but the fact is that many people are fanatical about their finances but very cavalier when it comes to their health. The cold hard reality is that the two are completely and inextricably connected. So if you want to reduce your health care expenses do it the old fashioned way: don’t make yourself sick.
