It wasn't such a hard sell for me personally because I had the experience of having a dad who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he was 54.

“Long-term care” is assistance you may need over an extended period of time to manage, rather than cure, a chronic condition or to compensate for a limited ability to function. Some baby boomers are familiar with long-term care and its costs, especially those whose parents have needed to pay for help with bathing, dressing, getting in and out of a chair, or other essential activities of daily living. However, others assume mistakenly that Medicare or other health insurance will pick up the tab for home care, assisted living or nursing home care should they ever need it.

But most just don't want to think about it.

Yet, not thinking about it doesn't change the fact that most of us will need paid long-term care for some amount of time at some point in our lives. Some will need a lot of long-term care; some will need less. As a result, long-term-care insurance has evolved as a way of transferring the risk of a long period of expensive care to an insurance company.

Unfortunately, if we wait until retirement to start thinking about possible long-term-care expenses, most of us will find our options severely limited. In retirement, it may be impossible to start saving the amount of money needed to pay for the kind of care we prefer at home or in a residential care setting. Also, most retirees on fixed incomes can't afford long-term care insurance premiums unless they've locked in lower rates when they were younger. Finally, one in four persons over the age of 65 cannot qualify for LTC insurance because of a pre-existing health problem.

While LTC insurance is an option being explored by many, it is not the answer for everybody. Understanding long-term care and LTC insurance is complicated and consumers need a place locally where they can go for objective, “no-sales pitch” information to help them make informed decisions about what is right for their unique situations.

So the Office for the Aging and Lifelong have collaborated to establish our new “Long Term Care Insurance Resource Centers.” The Centers now offer three free services:

• Educational materials: You are welcome to stop by either Resource Center to pick up consumer guides, checklists, and other handouts that will help you learn more about long term care and long term care insurance. Soon, you will also be able to access many of these resources on our Web site.

• One-to-one counseling: Schedule an appointment to sit down with a trained long-term-care counselor to explore all your planning options, including the suitability of LTC insurance.

• Group presentations: Invite us to make a presentation at your staff meeting, or professional/community organization meeting. Inquire about the dates of upcoming pubic workshops that you can attend to learn more about long-term care, financing options including long-term-care insurance, and how to go about choosing LTC policies should you decide to explore that option.

The next public workshop, titled “Long Term Care Insurance: Is It Right for You?” will be offered from 10-11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, and repeated from 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1. Both presentations will be held at Lifelong, 119 W. Court St., Ithaca. Advance registration is required.

For any of the above services, call Bob  843-412-7092 or Email