New York – Marion Somers is a woman with a cute bus and a gentle demeanor who has had a tough life.
Somers — the famous Dr. Marion — is trying to tell Americans, in the nicest possible way, that, if they fail to plan for long-term care (LTC) expenses, many of them may end up with lives that are as tough as hers was.
She began driving a refurbished 1966 Greyhound bus around the country four years ago, on her own, before she got involved with the 3in4 Association's 3in4 Need More long-term care (LTC) planning awareness campaign, to learn about what was happening around the United States in the areas of LTC planning and actually providing LTC services.
She says that, in the course of her travels, she's seen some things that are working. She saw communities trying to emphasize "universal design" — architectural choices, urban planning choices and other choices that can make houses, shops, offices and public spaces more usable by all residents, no matter what age those residents are or what abilities they have or don't have.
When she visited Scandinavia, she liked the fact that communities there build homes for elders near schools, to help people of different ages mix.
But "I found more that wasn't working," Somers said today at a club in New York during an interview at her latest stop on the second bus tour she's been doing with the support of the 3in4 Association.
Somers sat down for an interview about what long-term care insurance (LTCI) producers should tell their clients with LifeHealthPro when she drove through New York in 2011.
This year, we talked to her again and tried to capture more of what she has to say about LTC services, LTC planning and the desperation of informal caregivers.
Somers would love to see the government do more to help care recipients and caregivers, but she does not think consumers should expect to see much new assistance coming from that direction.
Somers talked to all of the major Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa four years ago and all of the major Republican candidates in Iowa earlier this year.
Presidential candidates and other policymakers may make vague statements about knowing someone who knows someone who's been a caregiver, and they may say they understand the importance of the issue, but they rarely give enough details to indicate that they really do understand the issue, let alone provide any possible answers for dealing with coming LTC tsunami, Somers said.
The only realistic message for consumers, Somers said, is that, "You have to take care of you."
Despite Somers' encounters with the presidential candidates, she tries to stay away from talking about politics. But, whatever government agencies want to do or even promise to do, the need for LTC services clearly will outstrip any plans the government has made for providing it, and people have to do everything they can to take care of their own health, buy private long-term care insurance (LTCI), and take any other steps they can think of to take responsibility for their own LTC needs, Somers said.
Somers said she bought her own LTCI coverage 15 years ago, as soon as she knew it was available, because she saw LTCI as a way to protect her children from facing the same pressure she'd faced as a family caregiver.
