There’s no denying that home care makes life easier for both an aging senior and his or her family. But sometimes there’s a matter of financing. Fortunately, most people have options to finance the care of a loved one, whether the senior is eligible for help through Medicaid, Veteran’s Administration (VA) programs, insurance, local benefits or private financing. This guide to financing senior home care should offer some helpful advice.
Before you start phoning around looking for funding, there is a great deal of planning to be done. Having all the information available and a significant financial plan ready can make the process so much easier, which means you can get on with the more important job of ensuring your loved one has the very best care, both from you and the new professional caregiver.
Now that your loved one needs a little more help, it's even more critical that everyone in the family be on the same page. Navigating someone else's finances is tricky, mainly if your loved one has started to decline mentally, and the knowledge needed is very often spread amongst the immediate family. Maybe you know where the will is, but your sister is the only one who knows the details of the pension. Get together and share that knowledge.
It’s also important to talk about your loved one’s condition and what kind of commitment each of you can offer as a caregiver. If you know what you can cover between everyone, you can work out your senior’s needs and how much that might cost. When planning, you’ll want to be realistic about caring for your senior loved one: everyone needs a break from caregiving now and then.
It can also be good to talk in advance about what might happen should funding help not be available, who would be able to contribute what and how often.
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