For several years, my wife had been developing early-stage dementia.
During that time, her care needs were minimal and our family — me, our daughter and our two young granddaughters — were able to provide the help she needed.
In December 2012, my wife returned home from a nine-day hospitalization much frailer than when she went in, and her dementia had significantly progressed.
Our daughter is a schoolteacher, and was on holiday, so she was able to help care for my wife in our home, including bathing and using the bathroom. But once she returned to school, our situation became difficult.
I am 86 years old, and have balance problems that prevent me from being able to help my wife with those tasks. One wrong move on my part could cause both of us to fall and suffer serious injury.
It was clear we needed help, if my wife was going to remain at home with us, so we hired a home health aide so she would have the help she needed.
Those three crucial hours of assistance cost us about $70 a day.
We were in the fortunate position of having long-term care insurance to help with the cost, but that’s not the case for everyone.
On top of that, our policy had a waiting period of 90 days before the insurance kicked in, which meant we spent almost $4,500 out of pocket before our insurance started picking up the cost.
The majority of seniors who do not have long-term care insurance need to rely on their own or family resources. Seventy dollars a day in help means they are spending $25,500 a year out of pocket. That is not sustainable for most of our state’s growing senior population.
The number of seniors in Hawaii and in the country is growing. Baby boomers started to age into retirement in 2011, and studies show that about 70 percent of them will need in-home care at some point.
Hawaii needs a long-term plan for long term care — the longer we wait, the more expensive it gets.
Senate Bill 2478 would allow everyone to access a long-term care social insurance benefit of $70 a day, for 365 days.
That benefit would go a long way to helping seniors get the help they need to be able to remain at home safely.
Whether it is spent on in-home assistance, or installing equipment like ramps and grab bars, this benefit would help families provide a minimum standard of in-home care for their aging loved ones.
My wife never wanted to go to a care home, but unfortunately this became necessary in July 2013. She wanted to stay in our home, with her family, where she belonged and where we wanted her to be.
We are not unique; almost everyone wishes to remain at home, where they are comfortable. This bill would help reduce the out-of-pocket cost to families taking care of loved ones and keeping them safe at home, and to the state by reducing the need for long-term care in nursing homes.
I hope our state legislators will support seniors and SB 2478.
