Insurance for the aging parent

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Topic Author
alexfoo39
Posts: 235
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:00 am

Insurance for the aging parent

Post by alexfoo39 »

You know that kind of situation, where a huge medical bill on the elderly parent, and requiring you to sell off SP500 and bond funds to save your loved ones...

Situation
1) Dad is going 67 this year. Not insured.
2) many insurance companies refuse to insure someone with age 60 and above.
3) the insurance cost is getting even more expensive moving on from 67.....

What should I, as a concerned child, do at this stage? Dad is still able to work a full time job (with salary that is enough to feed himself), but I don't want to presume that is going to be the case for another 10+ years plus down the road.

Comments and advice are welcome. Thank you.

non-us context
123
Posts: 10415
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:55 pm

Re: Insurance for the aging parent

Post by 123 »

alexfoo39 wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:30 pm ...non-us context
What does this mean? Is your dad in the US? If not where is he?

If he lives in the US is he eligible for Social Security and/or Medicare?

If he lives in the US and is not eligible for Social Security and Medicare has he applied for insurance under the Affordable Care Act in his state?
The closest helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
Iridium
Posts: 768
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 10:49 am

Re: Insurance for the aging parent

Post by Iridium »

alexfoo39 wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:30 pm non-us context
You should edit the country your father lives into the subject of this post. Every country is different, so it is hard to know how concerned to be. In some countries, insurance just gets you into the nicer private hospitals, but the taxpayer funded public hospitals provide excellent care (with waiting lists for non-imminently fatal conditions). In some countries, the government picks up most of the tab at all hospitals, so being 'uninsured' just means you are on the hook for the relatively small residual. Some countries have health care that is dirt cheap even without government subsidy. In some countries, people can contract directly with the local hospital for a service plan in the absence of true insurance coverage.

What every country has in common is at least some proportion of the population of retirement age and some mechanism affordable to the middle class for the provision of health care as one gets older. However, without knowing the country, it is impossible to know what that mechanism is.
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JoeRetire
Posts: 15381
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:44 pm

Re: Insurance for the aging parent

Post by JoeRetire »

alexfoo39 wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:30 pm You know that kind of situation, where a huge medical bill on the elderly parent, and requiring you to sell off SP500 and bond funds to save your loved ones...

Situation
1) Dad is going 67 this year. Not insured.
2) many insurance companies refuse to insure someone with age 60 and above.
3) the insurance cost is getting even more expensive moving on from 67.....

What should I, as a concerned child, do at this stage? Dad is still able to work a full time job (with salary that is enough to feed himself), but I don't want to presume that is going to be the case for another 10+ years plus down the road.
Fortunately in the US, we no longer experience that kind of situation. Hopefully, we'll never have to experience it in the future again.

In your case, it sounds like you answer is contained within your question.
You "sell off SP500 bond funds to save your loved ones".
Your Dad continues to work as long as possible.
You hope for the best.
This isn't just my wallet. It's an organizer, a memory and an old friend.
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HueyLD
Posts: 9789
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:30 am

Re: Insurance for the aging parent

Post by HueyLD »

alexfoo39 wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:30 pm You know that kind of situation, where a huge medical bill on the elderly parent, and requiring you to sell off SP500 and bond funds to save your loved ones...

Situation
1) Dad is going 67 this year. Not insured.
2) many insurance companies refuse to insure someone with age 60 and above.
3) the insurance cost is getting even more expensive moving on from 67.....

What should I, as a concerned child, do at this stage? Dad is still able to work a full time job (with salary that is enough to feed himself), but I don't want to presume that is going to be the case for another 10+ years plus down the road.

Comments and advice are welcome. Thank you.

non-us context
Does your dad live in the U.S., a country with universal health insurance or a country without universal health insurance?

One of the neighbors brought her elderly mother into the U.S. from Venezuela. While the mother is now safe from the political unrest in her homeland, she is also faced with potentially astronomical medical bills. I guess the choice is probably death either way. Life is such a cruel thing.
Topic Author
alexfoo39
Posts: 235
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:00 am

Re: Insurance for the aging parent

Post by alexfoo39 »

thank you for the replies.

Both my dad and I reside in Malaysia. There are some government initiatives to 'help' the senior citizens with lower household income and 'uninsured'. Help means they are entitled for free a certain amount of insurance against critical illness and hospitalization cost. Uninsured means they did not have an active policy with an insurance company.

Heard a lot of examples where one's saving is literally wiped out because he/she needs to save his parent with the enormous medical bills. The government hospitals here charge relatively cheaper cost, but the queue and waiting is killing sometimes. Thus many resort to the private hospitals, but the bills are killing at the expense of buying time for the suffering loved ones.

I'm thinking, since we are about achieving FI, how do we factor such a cost into our project annual expense down the road?
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Raybo
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Location: San Francisco
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Re: Insurance for the aging parent

Post by Raybo »

First, do some research on how much it might cost to pay for some expensive medical treatment. Once you know how much money you might need, you can begin building a kind of Dad's emergency fund to pay for such a problem.

You will likely have some notice before such an operation is needed so I don't think you need to keep all of this fund in cash. This will allow it to grow a bit in the meantime.

Also, try to get your father some health insurance, even if you pay for it and it only covers expensive procedures.
No matter how long the hill, if you keep pedaling you'll eventually get up to the top.
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