Your Future Health: 4 Things to Consider

How you can and should take care of your own health and that of your family is not necessarily as straightforward a question as it seems. There are certain treatments and approaches that medical professionals are generally in agreement on and others where people might choose different options based on what is most important to them. Below are a few things to do and consider when it comes to your life and health.

Consider Your Philosophy

Which do you value more, length of life or quality of life? Are you someone who feels better having regular tests and scans, or are you more of a go to the doctor only when something feels bad kind of person? Would you tend to choose a higher risk treatment that also had a higher chance of working or are you more of a wait and see type? You don't have to have the answers to these types of questions, and your answers may change over time, but thinking about your preferences now can help you make decisions if you are diagnosed with something later. Often, there are situations in which there may be two or three different ways that you could proceed depending on how comfortable you are with more invasive or risky procedures. Your doctor can make recommendations, but ultimately, the choice will be up to you.

Have Health Insurance

If you are not eligible for such plans as Medicare or Medicaid, you may want to look into getting health insurance so that you'll know you're covered if you need to pay unexpected medical bills or become seriously ill. Whether you want a high-deductible plan that mostly covers catastrophic illness or accidents or something costlier that covers more will depend on your own personal health and financial situation.

Get Life Insurance

No one wants to think about death, but life is unpredictable, and a serious accident or illness can happen even to a young and healthy person. For this reason, it's important to have a life insurance policy that can protect your loved ones if anything happens to you. A standard whole life insurance policy can be expensive, but you can get a much more affordable term life insurance policy. This lasts for a certain number of years, a term, so you may ask yourself if term life insurance is worth it. You can review a guide to help you decide if it suits your needs. In addition to life insurance, you may also want to consider other ways to plan for the future of your loved ones. You might want to create a will or a trust, and beneficiary designations for retirement or other accounts should be completed.

Advance Medical Directive

An advance medical directive is sometimes called a living will, and it details the kind of care you want if you are unable to communicate your wishes. You also can and should talk to your loved ones about your preferences, but in the stress of the situation, it is helpful for them to have a document that is clear about what you prefer. You may also want to appoint someone to make medical decisions on your behalf.

This is a guest blog entry.