Assisted Living

Assisted living, elder care, nursing homes, Medicaid approved or not, private care, Medicaid approved or not; how confusing it all is. Logging on to the South Carolina websites for these aforementioned places is perplexing enough but when you realize that most of them are located in either Charleston, Columbia or Greer, it makes deciding which to call even more of a headache. Add to that the guilt associated with making the final decision to place a relative in one of these facilities, you want to throw up your hands and scream.
If you’re not wealthy or other members of your family don’t deem it necessary to fork over some cash, you’re stuck with trying to find a place that is Medicaid approved or a place that will accept the meager income the person has in order to provide care. I thought I had found one such private home. Arrangements had been made for me to call for an appointment to tour the home in Edgefield County therefore when I called I fully expected all to go smoothly. Not so. The proprietors had decided there wasn’t enough money involved for them to accept us. Then I began to wonder just what cost so much money in a private home in order to justify $2000.00 per month. How much food can one person eat? How much water, electricity or gas can one person use? When you consider that Community Long Term Care was going to provide an aide to help with cleaning, bathing etc., it seemed like an outrageous amount until the word greed popped into my head. Two rooms at $2000 per mo; $4000 per mo for one semi-invalid with CLTC and one bed-ridden person with who knows what. Add to that retirement checks and hey, that’s a pretty good living. Maybe I should look into that was my next thought but I am not a greedy person hence that job wouldn’t suit me. Besides, once some people begin acquiring money all they want to do is acquire more.
Phone call after phone call has yielded little results. This experience has taught me that Medicaid beds are very difficult to find, leading me to the conclusion that elder care in this country is too expensive for the middle to low income family. Without Medicaid, prices start in the $4000 per month range and go up. With Medicaid they take the persons income and all assets if any, then the Medicaid picks up the rest of the tab which only means that we are paying for it just in a different way. In addition, what if the person seeking a place is on the cusp of an income that is too little to private pay and too much to get the help of Medicaid? And then there is the problem of re-applying for Medicaid if the facility is in a different state. I had the mistaken belief that Medicaid was a Federal assistance but it is by state. As I said, it’s all so confusing, frustrating and in a way, it makes one feel guilty for not having more money or the tools to cope at home. It is hard to do it alone; it is hard to find help; it is even harder to find a decent place to send them.