Boomers want to retire yet stay involved

Many retirees, especially we baby boomers, want to retire from their careers yet become involved in other areas such as social and health services.

Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are starting to retire, and they want to make remarkable contributions to society.

Sure, people retire to play golf, but they soon find that golf isn't enough.

We need to embrace the energy, expertise and wisdom of retirees and encourage their involvement.

To optimize this opportunity, some false impressions must be cast aside and hurdles cleared.

Unpaid volunteers are often not as respected or as valued as paid personnel, a trend that has to be changed. Also unpaid positions are often not as challenging.

To fully engage volunteers, we must ave community commitment of money and of time for nonprofits to develop needed systems and infrastructures.

To make the volunteer experience win-win for both the organization and the individual. Volunteers should be given orientation and training, job descriptions and supervision. The expectations must be clear for all involved.

We suggest shifting the view of retirement from 'the freedom FROM work' to the 'the freedom TO work'.

As more baby boomers jump off the corporate ladder, we hope they can work in ways that are personally rewarding and ways that benefit society. We need to welcome and engage these new members of the so-called work force. Because, after all, sometimes golf just isn't enough...

But what about care issues?

How to pay for the long-term health-care needs of aging baby boomers will become a major crisis unless steps are taken to rationalize the current hodge-podge of federal regulations and restricted coverage, according to a health-law expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Most elderly Americans have limited coverage of long-term-care expenses through Medicare and face potentially cataclysmic expenses as nursing-home costs soar to as much as $100,000 a year," wrote Richard L. Kaplan, an Illinois law professor specializing in elder law, in a recent issue of the University of Illinois Law Review.

Kaplan proposes a comprehensive restructuring of long-term-care financing to tackle this problem, which most heavily falls on middle-class families. Under his plan, Medicare, the government's health-care program for older Americans, would cover most nursing-home costs.

To help families pay for care outside of nursing homes such as assisted-living facilities and continuing-care retirement communities Kaplan also proposes improving private long-term-care insurance to make it more appealing.

Fewer than 10 percent of Americans now have private long-term-care insurance, and many believe mistakenly that Medicare will cover their long-term care. In fact, Kaplan writes, "Medicare is woefully inadequate in terms of long-term care. It covers only the two extremes of the long-term-care continuum, home health care and nursing homes, and does so under significant restrictions. Medicare's coverage of home health care utilizes primarily a medical approach that only incidentally strives to maintain a senior citizen in his or her home. On average, this coverage is limited to only four hours of assistance per day and requires ongoing coordination with a supervising agency and a physician."

Medicare's coverage of nursing-home costs is equally restricted. Programmatic limitations apply to the level of care needed, the medical condition being treated and a patient's prior hospitalization. As a result, Medicare enrollees face substantial financial exposure when they enter a nursing home.

Shifting the cost of nursing-home care to Medicare which could be financed by general tax revenues plus premiums paid by enrollees would cerainly help protect families from costs that can wipe out the assets of senior citizens and often their children as well. But it's unlikely that Medicare will be expanded in this way. Highly unlikely.

Consequently, as we plan for a flexible, engaged retirement, we must also prepare for long term care with sensible insurance coverage, and these days you can get your comparative rate quotes most easily online.

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