The conclusion reads:

“The life and health insurance industry feels strongly that the time for reform is now in order to prepare for the needs that long-term care will face. Our industry stands ready to play an important role in supporting governments and stakeholders in the reforms that will prepare the long-term care system to meet future demands.”

If this is so, then why is the following additional recommendation absent from the report?

That all Canadian financial advisors include long term care planning as a component of every financial/retirement plan they create.

What are these people thinking?

A poll conducted for RBC this spring that found 40 percent of baby boomers don’t expect their lifestyle or independence to ever be affected by health constraints.

Don’t they know that: **

  • 500,000 Canadians suffer from some form of dementia; a new case is diagnosed every 5 minutes. Of these, about 71,000 – or almost 15 per cent – are under 65. Of those, 50,000 are 59 or younger
  • There are more than 4.6 million Canadians living in pain with osteo arthritis (OA); within a generation more than 10 million or one in four are expected to have OA. There will be a new diagnosis every 60 seconds
  • The number of obese Canadians will nearly double in the next 30 years. While approximately 17.7% of Canadians are obese, by 2040 this is expected to increase to 29.3% of Canadians
  • A couple, both of whom are now 65 years of age, face an 85% chance of one partner experiencing an extended critical illness and an 82% chance of needing long term care

Again I ask…what are these people thinking…or are they thinking at all?

Do they read the newspapers? Headlines from the past few months:

  • Who will manage my portfolio if I develop dementia?
  • Canadians ignoring the likelihood of ill health in old age
  • Boomers will have to pay for much of their own long-term care
  • Fear of illness in old age haunts our finances
  • No plan at all: majority of Canadians ill prepared for long-term health care costs
  • Long-term care crisis looms: insurance industry

It is clear to me that financial advisors have their work cut out for them over the next 20 years.

Let us help.!!

**Sources

  • Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society 2010
  • The Impact of Arthritis in Canada: Today and Over the Next 30 Years. Arthritis Alliance of Canada. Fall 2011
  • Sun Life Financial

Patients needing long-term care clog hospitals

Provinces trying to support more seniors to return home with supports
CBC News Nov 29, 2012

On any given day about five per cent of acute hospital beds are occupied by “alternate level care” patients and 85 per cent of them are seniors. Seniors are clogging our hospitals because they have nowhere to go. There are not enough long term care beds nor rehab beds. There is not enough money in the home care system to support them at home.

And for those with dementia, it’s even worse. Right now in Ontario, the system only funds 58 beds, out of a total of 78,000 for patients with specialized behavioural needs such as those who are aggressive or agitated as a result of a neurological conditions or dementia.

58 beds!!

It’s the same old story that has been going on since before my father was manhandled by the system starting in 1990. He was a ‘bed blocker’ after he suffered a series of strokes because there was no long term care bed available, so he waited in the hospital for 3 months. Fortunately he did not acquire a hospital superbug which has killed far too many seniors.

And let’s not even get started on medical ageism where healthcare workers commonly treat old people as though they don’t deserve the same care as younger Canadians.

The government continues to ignore these problems. What will it be like when you get there?

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. CONTACT YOUR MP. CONTACT THE PRESS. SPEAK UP.