An article in the Business section on March 31 incorrectl described the relationship of the two principals of a Bowie firm, Estate Planning for the Disabled, to Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Both Emad Alwan and Edward Massagli have previously worked as financial planners for Metropolitan Life, but neither is employed there at present. Mr. Massagli is an attorney.
The Sun regrets the error.
The first shock, Joe Ann Kuhn says, came in 1969 when hehusband, Paul, learned at age 36 that he had multiple sclerosis. Then, four years ago, Mr. Kuhn suffered an MS attack that had the destructive force of a stroke.
FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION
"He couldn't even roll over," said Mrs. Kuhn, 55, an office manager in Annapolis. "I suddenly realized, if something happens to me, what in the world happens to my husband?"
Like other families where one member has a chronic, debilitating illness such as MS or a developmental disability such as mental retardation, the Kuhns discovered there is no easy answer to the question of how to provide for the disabled person when a spouse or parents die.
Medicaid, for example, would pay for Mr. Kuhn's care in a nursing home, but only to the extent that he could not afford that care on his own, Mrs. Kuhn said. Any funds left to him in her will would have to be used up before Medicaid kicked in, she added.
Medicaid also does not provide for such lesser amenities as optical care or for the sort of activities -- like visiting relatives -- that make life pleasurable for people whose illness or handicap prevent unassisted travel, she said.
While friends suggested that the Kuhns' 34-year-old son and 28-year-old daughter could be counted on to take care of their father if Mrs. Kuhn died, she discounted that idea.
"If anything happened to me, I know my kids would do their best. But they're young. They're raising their own families. If I'm gone, I would want to ensure that Paul has a good quality of life without being a burden to them," she said.
Achieving that is one of the hardest tasks Mrs. Kuhn, and spouses and parents like her, face, said Ralph J. Moore Jr., a Washington lawyer who has written a handbook on estate planning for families of persons with developmental disabilities.
If parents and spouses don't make arrangements for the care of a disabled family member after their death "the law will make arrangements instead," said Mr. Moore, whose handbook is published by the Maryland State Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities.
