Be Prepared: The Complete Financial, Legal, and Practical Guide to Living with Cancer, HIV, and other Life-Challenging Conditions [Hardcover]

David Landay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 1998

If you are confronting a life-threatening condition and facing challenges to your fincances, work, and future, you no longer need to struggle alone. In Be Prepared, attorney David Landay, a leading authority with moer than thiry years' experience in this field, assembles and explains the most up-to-date financial, legal, and practical information. He will help you focus on the questions to ask, how to find the information you need, and where to loacte the resources to assist you. Topics covered include:

How to obtain access to the best medical care
Surprising ways to pay bills with existing assets
Work issues, disability, and going back to work
Legal issues such as estate planning and the Americans with Disabilities Act
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
New Investment strategies
How to maximize your nicome and manage your expenses and debts

By showing you, in simple steps, how to understand, organize, and manage your affairs, Landay provides you with the practical know-how and emotional confidence to face the future without fear. Be Prepared is the ideal book to help you make the best of some of life's most difficult situations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Coming off the deaths of his father following a bout with lung cancer, a loved one who was diagnosed with leukemia, and a number of friends who contracted HIV, attorney David S. Landay wrote Be Prepared for people facing life-challenging conditions. The book is organized and presented in a tone Landay says is necessary for anyone facing an uncertain future. As such, he repeatedly emphasizes a need to both expect the best and prepare for the worst. He covers a variety of topics, including drugs and treatments, nutrition and exercise, taxes, new uses of existing assets, and estate planning. Being proactive is a consistent theme and is particularly relevant in areas such as medical power of attorney, living wills, do-not-resuscitate orders, durable power of attorney, and preneed decisions about children. Of course, when it comes to an area such as money, it's tempting to assume that much of this information is already presented in other reputable books on financial planning that cover areas such as life, disability, and health insurance. But Landay makes a point of noting that some of his concepts for people with life-challenging conditions appear to fly against conventional wisdom. He calls attention to those concepts with a special symbol and refers to them as CASH: Conventional Advice Switched on its Head. (Examples: As long as you have a taxable income, it is advisable to continue to invest in retirement accounts; even if you don't have health insurance, there are still ways to get it; disability does not generally happen overnight; Medicaid covers more long-term care than Medicare.) And the book is certainly unique in its compilation of advice in a variety of areas (medical, financial, and legal), all aimed at informing people facing critical decisions. In the end, it's hard to know if Be Prepared is a truly proactive tool, or the type of resource people won't turn to until a crisis strikes. In that sense, it's much like earthquake preparation guides that go unnoticed until the big one hits. Nevertheless, Landay's effort is a sobering reminder both that poor health can send our lives spiraling out of control and that a little planning ahead can bring pride, dignity, and a sense of power to an otherwise compromised life. --John Russell

Review

"Read this book. Everyone confronted by a major illness will gain important knowledge to help live his or her life with dignity." --Cornelius Baker, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS

"Be Prepared is an essential guide for all of us" --Diane Blum, ACSW, executive director of Cancer Care, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312180489
• ISBN-13: 978-0312180485
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,588,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone Should Have This Book, July 7, 2000

By 

Jon Edney (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Be Prepared: The Complete Financial, Legal, and Practical Guide to Living with Cancer, HIV, and other Life-Challenging Conditions (Hardcover)

Be Prepared is an incredible compilation of useful and practical information for anyone dealing with serious illness. When my mother was diagnosed with Liver Disease, I had no idea where to turn to get answers to a number of our questions regarding insurance and financial matters - our family attorney didn't even have all the information compiled here. I am grateful that a friend gave me a copy of Be Prepared... Not only did it provide me with the tools to evaluate our situation realistically, it also pointed me in the right direction to deal with issues that hadn't even crossed our minds. I highly recommend Be Prepared to anyone facing the challenges of a serious illness.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is exactly as titled and promised., October 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Be Prepared: The Complete Financial, Legal, and Practical Guide to Living with Cancer, HIV, and other Life-Challenging Conditions (Hardcover)

This is the information I wish I had had when diagnosed with cancer 11 years ago. I told my oncologist not to give a malignancy diagnosis without also giving the patient this book.The author's philosophy of expecting the best while also being prepared for the worst is right on the money.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A much needed life saver, December 1, 1999

By 

Rebecca Schei (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Be Prepared: The Complete Financial, Legal, and Practical Guide to Living with Cancer, HIV, and other Life-Challenging Conditions (Hardcover)

Living with a life challenging condition is incredibly difficult. Help in negotiating the maze of applying for help is a wonderful gift.