Department of Health and Human Services
Administration on Aging

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Home for the Holidays
A Good Time to Talk with Family

Take time to talk with your family during the holidays about health and long-term care. You may want to talk with your spouse and/or children about your future long-term care needs or with your parents about key issues that affect their well-being. After all, long-term care, the Medicare Prescription Drug coverage, and Medicare Coverage for Preventive Services affect families not just individuals. We have tips to help you get ready to talk with your loved ones during the holidays about these important topics.

Long-Term Care

When you think ahead about retirement, include long-term care planning to help you prepare for the future. You may want to talk with your spouse and/or children about what steps your family can take now. A Long-Term Care Planning Kit is available to help you plan for future long-term care needs at: www.aoa.gov/ownyourfuture. For more in-depth information about the risks and costs of long-term care and long-term care planning options visit: www.longtermcare.gov.

Medicare Prescription Drug Program

Medicare Prescription drug plans are available to everyone with Medicare. People with Medicare have until December 31, 2006 to change or add coverage to their current Medicare health and prescription drug plans. New information for 2006 is now posted on the Plan Finder Web site. Please share information from this Web site with your parents and older relatives. You can compare cost and coverage for various plans. Also, you can view specific data on how plans performed in several areas of customer service. Visit the Plan Finder Web Site.
For more information about enrolling in a Medicare Drug plan click here.

Medicare Coverage for Preventive Services

Medicare now covers a number of preventive services. Please ask your older parents and older relatives to make full use of these prevention benefits to help them protect their health. For more information visit: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=2045.