Free Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage Booklet - From AARP

Category: Elder Law

The New Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage--What You Need to Know. AARP. 28 Pages.

This free booklet from the AARP provides a thorough overview of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit that will go into effect on January 1, 2006. The booklet explains, in simple language, how the benefit works, the cost, what types of drug plans will be available, how to choose a plan, how to join, and what extra help is available for low-income individuals. Helpful charts and tables illustrate how the benefit works. The booklet also provides examples to help you understand this new benefit and decide whether you should sign up for it at all.

Supreme Court to Revisit Assisted Suicide

Category: Elder Law

Supreme Court to Revisit Assisted Suicide - Yahoo! News: "The Supreme Court will revisit the emotionally charged issue of physician-assisted suicide in a test of the federal government's power to block doctors from helping terminally ill patients end their lives.

Oregon is the only state that lets dying patients obtain lethal doses of medication from their doctors, although other states may pass laws of their own if the high court rules against the federal government. Voters in Oregon have twice endorsed doctor-assisted suicide, but the Bush administration has aggressively challenged the state law."

Average Cost Nursing Home Room - $74,000 a Year!

Category: Elder Law

According to the 2005 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home and Home Care Costs the average daily cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States is $74,095 a year, or $203 a day, and the the average cost of a semi-private room, is $64,240 a year, or $176 a day. This breaks down to $6,174 or $5,353 per month respectively - the State of New Jersey finds the average costs of a nursing home to be $6050.

The study also found that the cost of a home health care aide averaged $19 per hour nationally,and homemaker/companion care averaged $17 per hour.