<p>“People 65 and older are the hardest hit. Future retirees are expected to spend 18 percent of their household income on health care expenses, compared to 8 percent for current retirees, according to the report.”</p>
<p>“Health and long-term care costs are why essentially half of all retirees die penniless, says Donald Redfoot, senior strategic policy adviser for AARP’s Public Policy Institute”</p>
<p>I visited my mother last week and she said that she spends little on healthcare. She dropped Medicare Part B a few years ago (we didn’t think it wise). She takes no medications at all, works out three times a week in a group study and works out at home with experimental equipment that they give her. She’s also active socially, lives in her own home and is independent. She does live with some pain in her back but she just manages. I think that having her financial affairs in order (no debt, decent income), kids and grandchildren nearby and regular visits from far flung kids helps. It also helps living in a city which is fairly supportive of seniors.</p>
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<p>Last time I had a checkup was around 2005. I haven’t visited a doctor in probably four or five years. But I’m pretty serious about my health. Two sisters are too - one does a lot of walking and the other walks and works out at a gym five days a week. One of the husbands is fairly trim and the other is overweight but relatively fit. The third sister works out somewhat though I wouldn’t say that she’s fit. Her husband is obese with a family history of early death die to heart attacks. She is worried about it. So yes, seniors should do all that they can do to decrease health costs in their later years - it will also improve quality of life.</p>
<p>I guess it would save money if everyone was like my dad…seemed perfectly healthy, dropped dead from a heart attack on his 80th birthday after eating a full meal. (He was always slender and ate healthy food.)</p>
<p>Musicmom, it is great that you ave retiree health benefits.</p>
<p>I am not sure about long term care insurance. If the premiums aren’t locked in and can be increased over time, then I have my doubts. You start paying premiums in your 50’s can the cost of premiums skyrocket in your 70’s? </p>
<p>Missypie, that is the way I plan to go. Nice and quick. :)</p>
<p>BCEagle91, I am doing similar things, but you are more disciplined on food.</p>
<p>Yeah, I can’t compete with you big boys…
one of you burning 1200 cal/day and the other eating only that many…
So jealous.</p>
<p>I’m off work today and heading to gym now. I call it a great day if I can do the hour on the elliptical I want to. It ‘says’ that I’m burning 500 cal. Sure feels like even more, it’s torture. I need to control my eating.</p>
<p>I’m back up to about 1,800 - 2,000 calories. I did the low-calorie stuff for a while through a rough patch and things are going better now. I can go back to 1,200 calories but it takes a fair amount of effort.</p>
<p>Musicmom, you are doing great. Really. I am on the elliptical a lot obviously. Lol</p>
<p>There aren’t that many people burning 500 calories. </p>
<p>There is a 66 year old guy that can burn over 1000 calories in an hour. Incredible. There is a 78 year old guy who used to be an Olympic athlete and who is stronger than almost anybody. Still.</p>
<p>But most people have trouble at the 200 calorie mark.</p>
<p>My MIL has Medicare and a private policy that wraps around it that covers just about everything. My mother’s government employee’s widow’s pension that includes an option for Federal Retiree insurance does not cover much of the meds she needs which is makes it a major expense, though finding doctors around here to take her coverage as full payment has not been an issue at this point in time. </p>
<p>It seems to me that prescription coverage is an issue here with Medicare and other insurance plans.</p>
<p>Missypie, if you could sign up for that fate, I certainly would. My parents (early 70s) would too – they fear years of incapacitation far more than they fear death.</p>
<p>Note that “regular checkups” do not necessarily mean yearly checkups. Check the intervals for various preventive screening recommendations – many are at five or ten year intervals. (And some are of questionable value, such as PSA screening for most men, or mammograms for screening normal-risk women under age 50.)</p>
<p>Hanna, funny that you should put it that way…that’s exactly what I’ve told people…if you could sign up for a type of death, that one would be very popular. (Terrible shock to my mother, of course.)</p>
<p>Did you read the recent news stories that health care costs in connection with age-related dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, will soon surpass almost all other medical expense? As a person born at the peak of the Baby Boom, I have often thought that the expense involved when we get “there” is going to be colossal. I have darkly predicted that the view of euthanasia is going to change when the millions of Baby Boomers suffering from Altzheimer’s are bankrupting the country.</p>
<p>Scary stuff re: dementia. At my dad’s nursing home, the families of patients with severe dementia often opted not to treat routine infections as a way to end the patients’ suffering. My observation was that the decisions were based on compassion/doing what the patient would have wanted rather than on financial considerations. But, I agree that going forward, there are going to have to be big changes/reductions in money spent per patient. Thinking about my inlaws’ medical costs, there is NO way my H or I will ever have access to what they had given the budget deficit and demographics.</p>
<p>Just make sure you have a living will. I wish there was a “just shoot me” option on the living will, but there isn’t unfortunately.</p>
<p>As long as I have my eyes and my mind, I will be all right. But, honestly, if I can’t at least read books? I just don’t want to hang around.</p>
<p>I’ve seen it up close and personal and it’s watching the most amazing person become nothing, erased. This is the problem with the current live forever health model. When my grandmother knew she was losing her mind but was still having lucid moments, she used to joke about what a waste it had been to give up smoking.</p>