There was a point where I was planning for future eventualities and I did some research focused around “what would I do if both my husband and I needed memory care” and the answer I got was “spend literally everything we have and hope one of us is competent enough to manage the Medicare paperwork.”

And I hope that if I find myself going down the path to needing memory care, I'll have the wits to off myself before I get there. Because my 91yo MIL has been in various "versions" of memory care since July and it's existential hell. Literally sitting in a chair watching too loud TV 10 hours a day.

I've thought about long-term care insurance because I don't have anyone to take care of me the way my dad and I took care of my mom. Go batty and starve to death in my little hovel - if I don't burn it down around me - seems like a likely outcome for my future.

I try not to think too much about how I will have no person and no system to take care of me when/if I get old.

Ugh. I’m currently at the crossroads of this with my stepdad, who drank himself into Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and at his peak is running just barely below “coherent”, and trying to figure out how long he can afford to pay $6k a month for a memory care facility, vs. how long he’ll need to.

My plan in that case involves a cruise to Alaska and trying to wander off to an ice floe together. Or a trip to one of those European aid in dying places. Or freezing to death in a ditch. One of those things.

I think you mean MediCAID paperwork, but yes.