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Fact: Your Parents Will Get Sick and Suffer
If you’re middle-class right now, chances are that your parents won’t have much insurance. Back when they were young, they were too busy living hand-to-mouth and trying to bring you up properly to have purchased insurance for themselves.
So now they are old, and without insurance. Unfortunately, you are going to do your duty as a child and pay any medical bills that come their way.
2 months ago, my grandmother was hospitalized for the second time in a month. Although it turned out to be nothing serious, the hospital bill was rather hefty and my aunts/uncles turned to me for help because her first stay had practically wiped them dry for that half of the year. So I forked out a couple of grand for which they were very grateful.
That started me worrying about my own parents, who have little or no medical insurance. Even if I were to buy insurance for them now, at their age it would cost a bomb. Sure they are healthy now, but 10 years down the road what if they get sick? Even if it’s not a critical illness (eg. broken hip) the hospital fees would be hefty. Everything I had worked so hard for could be wiped out to pay their medical bills.
Being a professional pessimist (it’s in my job description), I expect shit to happen. Insurance is a necessary evil that transfers the financial risk to a third party.
So I rang up my insurance agent and told him about my dilemma. He said he would do some research and get back to me.
( I will tell you another time how to choose a good insurance agent and make him work for you. )
Anyway, last week he rang me up and told me he had found a plan that would cover my parents. It was a new plan, and I would one of the first to sign up for it. This elderly insurance plan would cover most of their hospital bills before they hit 70, and thereafter everything plus lasik, massages, transport etc. It was a fantastic plan because it was new (plans degrade in quality as more people sign up).
The annual premium for my mother (who is in her mid-fifties) cost about the same as my grandmother’s hospital bill for one stay. Imagine that!
My father may not qualify for the insurance plan because he has hyper-tension - it was a mistake to wait so long to buy a plan for him. And even if he does qualify, his premium may be sky-high.
Being a worrier, my mom told me not to buy the insurance, because the premiums were so high, and she was scared that I would not be able to afford it if I had more commitments in the future (like kids). I told her that I could afford it, but what I could not afford was an extended hospital stay if she were suddenly hit with an illness.
The moral of the story is this - It’s expensive to buy insurance for the elderly, but what you’re actually buying is peace of mind. I know I won’t have to sell my house one day to pay for an operation. I know I won’t have to cutback on my lifestyle one day so that we can afford a live-in nurse. It’s better to pay now, then to pay later when it’s infinitely more expensive.
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