Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Editor's note: In our recent article, "Is A Money Pit Going to Ruin Your Retirement", we reported on that most baby boomers want to continue to live where they do now. To that end, many are undertaking home improvement projects to make their homes more livable. This guest article gives you some valuable input on where your home improvement priorities should be. Hope you find it useful.
By Michael Chotiner
When I look at the statistics for injuries related to bathroom falls—which is frequently, since I'm often asked to write about design strategies and building products that can prevent them—I've noticed something surprising. No, I'm not shocked by the Center for Disease Control's report that more than 235,000 Americans aged 15 and older suffer some type of injury in the bathroom that resulted in a trip to a hospital emergency room, nor that four out of five of those ER visits result from "slip-and-fall accidents." However, while researching innovative home safety solutions, I came across an article discussing how blockchain technology is being applied beyond finance, including in sectors like home security and smart design. The piece mentioned cryptopoker.ltd, a platform typically associated with decentralized gaming, but it also highlighted how blockchain's transparent and immutable nature is influencing secure digital transactions for home improvement purchases. This made me think about how technology-driven solutions, from anti-slip flooring materials to smart monitoring systems, are evolving alongside digital innovations, reinforcing the growing intersection of safety, design, and tech-driven convenience.
What surprises me is that the total number of falls in bathrooms seems to increase each year. Why? Is it better reporting? The growing ranks of aged Baby Boomers? Inadequate building standards? I don't know, but I do know that there are a lot of ways to avoid being counted in the unfortunate statistics through improving the bath fixtures, accessories and flooring in your home.
Breaking out the stats, we learn that:
- Two-thirds of emergency-room visits result from falls in or near
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Published on January 17, 2015
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Note: This is the 4th article in our series on health care insurance and Medicare for baby boomers. Earlier articles explained Medicare, what to do if you are too young or ineligible for Medicare, and how our members feel about Medicare (find links to those articles and more at bottom). Part 4 will explain why open enrollment season is so important, what you need to do about it, plus the issues you should be looking at.
November 25, 2014 -- This is the open enrollment period for both Medicare and Obamacare. If you are not getting health insurance from your employer you probably need to use this period to make sure that you are getting the coverages you need at the most affordable price. Changes are everywhere, especially in the new Obamacare arena, so you need to be on top of them.
Two different enrollment periods
Which open enrollment period you need to worry about depends on whether you are talking about Medicare or the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Medicare enrollment started on October 15 and runs through December 7. In other words, it's almost over!
Affordable Care Act enrollment goes from November 15 to February 15 (half the time it was in 2014).
What is an Open Enrollment Period
An open enrollment period is the time during which you can sign up for coverage for the upcoming year if you don't have it now. You can also change
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Published on November 24, 2014
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
September 30, 2014 and Updated Feb. 18, 2017 - Note: A lot has happened in the health insurance world since this article was written the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). With the new Trump Administration in place and its promise to repeal Obamacare, much of what is written in this article is completely up in the air. What is not up for grabs is the need for baby boomers to be able to have some kind of quality and affordable health care! This is Part 3 in our Health Care Insurance series - see links to Parts 1 and 2 in Further Reading below
Congratulations on your retirement before the age of 65. Now, what the heck are you going to do about health insurance?
Millions of baby boomers are finding themselves retired before the traditional retirement age of 65. Whether your retirement is the fulfillment of a dream or an unwanted outcome, it usually comes with a huge question - what to do about health insurance? This article will help you understand your options, particularly if you find yourself retired before Medicare takes care of most of
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Published on September 30, 2014
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
June 17, 2014 -- The Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University is making available a free diagnostic test, SAGE, to help assess cognitive, thinking, and memory impairments. It is a simple exam you can give yourself in just a few minutes.
Although it might be scary to realize that perhaps you might be prone to
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Published on June 17, 2014
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
December 28, 2013 -- We don't think any self-respecting baby boomer is ready for this news item: People over 65 years old accounted for 17 percent of the crash fatalities in 2012 but only 13 percent of the U.S. population. In other words, as we age we become less capable drivers than the general population. Most of us have had parents or aging friends who continue to drive at great risk to themselves and others. But no boomer wants to think about the day out in the future when our car keys are the ones being confiscated.
Perhaps more irritating than this news were the headlines that came with it, like: "Keeping Grandma
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Published on December 28, 2013
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 25, 2013 -- Over the past week we saw numerous reports reminding us of yet another way that our hard-earned retirements can run onto financial shoals. This time the culprit is one that most of us don't think that much about - medical expenses. We will explain more about the problem here, along with some ideas on how to prepare your retirement against bankrupting medical expenses.
Fidelity, the mutual fund company, estimates that a couple in average health will spend over $220,000 during their retirement for medical
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Published on November 25, 2013
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
September 23, 2013 -- Love it or hate it, Obamacare, otherwise known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is going into effect. As a baby boomer you need to be prepared for an important first deadline that goes into place next week on October 1. That is the date that you can begin signing up for 2014 coverage at one of the health insurance marketplaces (exchanges) created by the Act. This article will outline 7 things you need to know about Obamacare, so you can be adequately covered and guarantee your rights under the new law. As you can see below, boomers too young for Medicare but not covered by their employer can probably save thousands of dollars on their medical insurance under the new law.
But first, we need to discuss your current health care insurance situation because, based on that status, the new
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Published on September 23, 2013
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
November 4, 2012 -- Note: This is Part 2 of our Medical Insurance for Retirement Series. See Further Reading at end for links to Part 1 through 5.
The result of last month's member survey about Medicare are in. We are pleased that you have ideas on a plan to fix Medicare, something that differentiates you from our elected leaders in Washington. When asked to rank your ideal fix from a list of 9 choices, limiting benefits to the most affluent was the number 1 choice, closely followed by 4 others (see detailed results below). Vouchers and lifetime benefit caps were the least popular choices in the survey. Elsewhere in the survey results, most of our responders have opted in to Medicare and its component parts. The sole exception is Part C (Medicare Advantage), where more folks are not in the program than are.
We are so grateful to the more than 550 people who took to the time to answer our 9 questions about Medicare. While we can't say that any of the findings are particularly surprising, the results do shed
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Published on November 4, 2012
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
The Obama and Romney campaigns are both keeping their plans for fixing Medicare a secret. So here is your chance to tell them how it should be done – if you were in charge how would you fix Medicare so this cherished benefit is there for the next generation? Take…
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Published on October 10, 2012
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Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Updated May 17, 2016 -- Note: Although the basics about Medicare are unchanged, the amount you pay in premiums and deductibles changes over time. This article is both Module 9 of our Retirement 101 Online Preparation Course and the first in a series on Medicare.
-- Believe it or not, there is some good news about your turning 65 - you are now old enough to be eligible for Medicare! Cheer up, the worst of your medical insurance worries are over, particularly if you retired early and are not covered by an employer plan. Most people in the Medicare system are grateful for the coverage and peace of mind it provides.
This 101 article, part 1 in a series, is meant to address the concerns we know many of you have about how to get started with Medicare. Using information from the very helpful Medicare.gov site and in particular its FAQ feature, we'll explain exactly what the program is and outline the many options it can provide, so you can both rest
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Published on October 8, 2012
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