Patricia from New York

Hi. I am a 52 year old daughter of an 83 year old mother with alzheimers and is legally blind from glaucoma. I have 5 siblings. I only work part time and the rest of my time is spent taking care of my mom. She needs constant care now as she is in the late stage. She lives with my 87 year old dad and my older sister who moved in with them to help with her care but works full time. Mom needs assistance with everything including bathing, dressing, walking, eating, and going to the bathroom. I'm writing because of the lack of insurance coverage there is for someone to come in and take care of our elderly when we can't be there. Even with six kids who most work full time, we are not able to be there all the time. My other sister just buried her husband of 40 years who had vascular dementia and who had the same problem. She had to order groceries online and pay extra to have them delivered. She never had anytime to get herself to dr appointments or even for something as simple as a haircut. She provided 24 hour care for him. My father has federal government insurance and we found out he pays over $700 a month for that coverage. I could not believe him until he showed me. Still the lack of coverage for our parents was lacking in such a disturbing way. I thought for sure paying that much for insurance we could get someone to come into their home to care for mom when we could not be there. My hope is that in the future there will be that coverage to help us keep our parents stay at home and as comfortable as possible in the last years of their life.