All of our lives, we have thanked God, ever so quietly perhaps, that someone, somewhere, has always been watching out for us. When we’re young, it’s our parents, maybe our teachers, sometimes even a kindly, sharp-eyed police officer, often without our even knowing it. As we age, our doctors and, most significantly, our employers, gradually take over the watch. We’ve grown accustomed to them making critical decisions about our lives; decisions that, at least until now, have demanded only minimal understanding or decision-making from any of us. We just assume that someone is looking out for us.

Lately, especially in Michigan, all of that has changed. Ask anyone in the mega industry of auto making in this state, or the thousands upon thousands who have dedicated their lives to teaching our young people in our school systems. These once fortunate employees have always enjoyed the very best of benefit packages: the very best health care, vision, dental, life- and long-term disability insurance. And, as each of us knows, these same dedicated workers have always been able to assume that their top-of-the-line benefits would carry them right through the remainder of their leisurely retirement for the rest of their days.

Now, however, in a matter of only a few short years, the auto industry has died right before our very eyes; and we, for our part, have been fairly helpless to do anything about it. Now we ourselves have got to make the decisions that our employers always used to make for us.

As we age, we absolutely must begin planning for our retirement and our senior years. If we do not, our lives and those of our families can quickly turn to shambles. It is happening every single day.

Take a close look at the benefits you have available to you. Clearly, there are now many gaps that were not there before. We all must make some critical choices; our happiness, and that of our loved ones, may well hang in the balance. Very few of us have unlimited financial resources. That means, of course, that we each have to decide where we’re going to allocate, and how we’re going to protect, the finances that we do have:

• What type of health insurance?
• Which prescription Medicare plan perhaps?
• Should we get vision, dental?
• How much life insurance and what kind? 

And yet, even if all of these decisions are made successfully, the fact remains that one of the most serious issues we face as we age is the all-too-likely prospect of needing health care for an extended period of time. We live a whole lot longer now. We do gradually lose our good health, often cripplingly so, but we continue to live on nonetheless. In seven out of 10 cases of people age 65-years or older, there is a dire need for Long-Term Care, either in one’s own home, or else in an assisted living or convalescent care facility. It is now the single largest health care risk, and certainly the most financially crippling to any family, that we face in this country today.

A stroke may cost you your life, but, cruel as it is, if you survive that stroke, but remain incapacitated, it may cost the lives and fortunes of your family if you haven’t prepared. It’s that simple; and it’s entirely up to you.

The average cost per day for Long-Term Care in Michigan today is $267 for a private room and $202 for a semi-private room, and the average stay is 2.7 years.

That’s an average cost of $73,000 per year, or a total of $200,000 for the 2.7 year average. That cost is now increasing at 5% per year. If both husband and wife need care, that’s $146,000 per year, and the average care-giving time at home is now 4.3 years.

Think in terms of your total portfolio. What portion of it has been allocated to your retirement lifestyle? Protect that lifestyle. Only Long-Term Care insurance can do that if we end up being one of those seven out of 10; and that’s likely, isn’t it? Otherwise, you will absolutely decimate that long-hoped-for retirement lifestyle, for you, your spouse, and very likely even for your children and their families.

A few years ago our federal government made Long-Term Care insurance available to its 22 million employees. Uncle Sam doesn’t pay for it; he just recognized its critical nature, and so negotiated a better group rate. The same benefit choices were offered to our President and to his Cabinet that were offered to our local postal workers. The statement coming from Washington was, “Long-Term Care insurance is each individual’s personal responsibility.”

Analysts concur that the American auto industry will probably never return to global dominance, and the auto makers, and other employers, are doing everything they can to survive and fewer resources are available to look after their employees. Things will never be the same.

You may have grown accustomed to others making critical decisions about your life and health, but everything has changed now; and like it or not, each of us is responsible for our own health, wealth and well being.