How-to guides: Help an elderly parent, find your own insurance

News organizations offer advice on how to care for an elderly parent without going broke and how to find health insurance before becoming eligible for Medicare.

CBS Money Watch: "The process is quite complicated, and the options are few. To help you wade through the rules, and to make sure you fully investigate what options you have, consider seeking the help of a geriatric care manager or other expert to help you, and your parents, through the process" (Bedway, 9/15).

The Baltimore Sun: "It's bad enough that your retirement savings are evaporating. But if you lost your job, retired early, or are turning to self-employment, you'll need to budget for health coverage. And the tab could be hefty." But "[y]ou do have options if you need to find insurance on your own" (Garland, 9/15).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.