Concept of a Prepaid Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care program

by Som Karamchetty

As people get older, they may have a real need for and start looking for Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care Programs [1, 2]. They will find them to be costlier than they had hoped and delay getting into them. Finally, when they do get into such programs, they will be looking for help from family members, governments, and other charities.

It occurred to me that there should be Prepaid Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care Programs. With such programs, people could choose to pay into their programs while they have jobs and incomes. If such payments are tax deductible, there will be more attractive to younger and middle aged people.

There are already Long-term healthcare programs [3], prepaid funeral programs [4], and Prepaid College Tuition Programs [5] for guidance.

Hence, it is reasonable to think of prepaid Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care programs.

The concept of care at various stages of one’s life comes when we think of a society. For humans, unlike animals, other members of the society provides care at various stages of their life. While animals can get up and be self-supportive after a brief time in their life, they can survive on their own. Of course, some animals form into societies and render some level of assistance and care for their young, sick, and old. It is also possible that some older and stronger members of the animal society take advantage of the young, weak, and old.

With humans, the society likes to protect and assist the weak, although the extent of such care and support depends on the society and its willingness and ability to render such care and assistance.

In modern societies, governments became dominant and the old concept of society has weakened. Modern people start talking about saving and taking measures and means to take care of themselves when they need help in the future. But, people are all not starting from the same baseline. Some people start life with assured help, and some others start with a silver spoon in their mouth. Unfortunately, in modern societies, a large number of people start with nothing and barely survive. Even those people who are called the middle class cannot cope inflationary costs. Thus, there are large populations of people in every country that look for the government and charities to help when their needs are severe. It must also be stated that some people do not care for their future and save nothing themselves or claim a human right that the government or other charities should take care of them in their time of need.

Here is where smarter societies come up with insurance programs, prepaid programs, and philanthropic missions.

Since all people do not live the same lifestyle, they also seek different care programs. In the modern society goods and services can be procured from larger global locations at various costs. By extending such a concept to these care programs, it is possible for people to choose the type of care they would like to get when they need them later on. Thus, they can choose the program they pay for or their donors are willing to give them.

Thus, prepaid Assisted Living and Nursing Home Care Programs of various types can be structured and individuals can be given the option to choose the program they like to and that they can afford.

It is about time for The United States, a nation where the people pride themselves of individual responsibility, choice, and payment, to start thinking of such programs. Such programs will let the Government focus on what they should essentially do.

Reference links:

[1] https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/answers/ctg/home-care-senior-housing/

[2] https://www.aarp.org/home-garden/livable-communities/info-2007/fs10r_homes.html

[3] https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/financial-legal/info-2018/long-term-care-insurance-fd.html

[4] https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2020/paying-for-cost-of-funeral.html

[5] https://www.finra.org/investors/learn-to-invest/types-investments/saving-for-education/529-prepaid-tuition-plans

A Method for Producing very Affordable Marble-Veneered Wall and Floor Tiles

By Som Karamchetty, PhD

Here is a presentation that shows how we could get floor and wall tiles with inferior stone (or concrete blocks) with attractive facing using Marble as veneer.

Traditional methods might suggest thin slices of marble can be cut and glued to low quality stone or concrete tiles. But, there is a limit to how thin one can cut and handle marble without breaking it.

With the suggested method, the tiles are cut after the gluing or joining is done, the thickness of the marble veneer can be very small. I am not able to specify the minimum thickness without actually conducting experiments.

But, the main advantage is that by this method, marble can be made available to more homes and offices. Since walls and floors with marble as the front do not require annual painting, it saves costs and leads to lesser amount of wasteful paint material. Thus, it will lead to lower costs and pollution levels.

{The pictures in the presentation say that one needs Som's prior written approval to produce and market them. That can be ignored as the idea was old and I never marketed it. Use it to conserve Marble blocks and have more tiles with good finish at affordable prices. I will be happy if the developers acknowledge my contribution.}