Elders face many challenges, including a broken health care system, according to health care professional Rachel Desgrosseilliers, who compiled this list of things to keep in mind when it comes to planning for one’s senior years:

• The high cost of long-term care, which runs from $8,000 to $12,000 a month, depending on needs.

• The cost of home care. Twenty-four-hour care is about $8,000 a week or $32,000 a month. Most people can’t afford this for long, if at all. Most people don’t have that much money.

• The reality of having to face a new life in a place where you may have to share a room, have less privacy and possibly not have enough support for all your needs.

• What options will be available to you when you are no longer able to do things yourself or take care of your affairs?

• Who will be available to help out in your time of need?

• The complexity of the health care system.

• The often long waits to see physicians.

• Recognizing you won’t live forever.

• Recognizing it is never too early to be thinking of getting affairs in order, whether healthy or ailing or rich or poor.