rest homes

Actually, I was wondering about this, too: I'd thaught it to be an American virtue to take care of oneself - which certainly would include looking at young age for resources to get cared for when help is needed.

Even in our system (or the similar NHS in the UK) such a behavious would be ... well, illegal.
(Which doesn't mean at all that it isn't practised!)

First of all it's the law, relative to medicaid qualification.

Secondly, being on medicaid is not equivalent to receiving inferior care. As many medicaid patients are in nursing homes that also have self-paying patients, the healthcare of the two groups of patients must be comparable. To be otherwise, would be against both Federal and State law.

Today, for the boomer generation, it's a little hard to consider one's well being in the future when you have elderly parents, who may have to be in nursing homes, to the tune of at least $120,000/year/patient and at the same time worry about putting 2-4 kids through college at a cost of a minimum of $45,000/year/child, not including room and board ( $15,000/year/child.

At this pace, a boomer will be lucky to retire and have a fairly decent 401K to fall back on. Sad to say, many boomers are now tapping into their retirement funds to pay their kid's tuition.

a type of seniors' housing that seems quite popular in great britain has now also started in canada .
essentially these are residental houses where several seniors can live together . they have their own rooms , private or semi-private bathrooms and common rooms .
lunch and dinner are prepared by a cook and all breakfast supplies are stocked .
residents are responsible for their own bedrooms .
i've not found a link a a u.s. facility .
i'd say they are very much like co-ops .
hbg

link to british site :
...ABBEYFIELD HOUSES...