If you answered yes to any of the above, welcome to the Whatshappening? club.

And consider this...

Although most of us grumble about our "high" insurance premiums, most of us hope that every penny we pay in premiums is wasted. You have fire insurance but you don't (in most cases) want your house to burn down. You have auto insurance but you don't (in most cases) cruise the freeway looking to tangle with an 18-wheeler.

For the other kinds of insurance - health and long term care - we really hope we never use them. That any premiums we pay will be, in that sense, wasted. That you and yours never need major surgery, contract a major disease, have an accident or wind up in a situation where somebody else has to help you eat, dress, bathe, get into and out of bed, etc.

Next year federal and postal workers, retirees and in some cases family members, will have to make a decision about LTC. Do they keep it if they have it, do they expand benefits, do they drop out or shop for coverage outside of the federal program?

At what point (as in your age) should you have LTC insurance? The number of people in their 50s who find they need it, for a variety of reasons, has gone up in recent years. That's one reason premiums are going up, because people are using LTC earlier and for a longer period of time than the actuaries predicted.

People buy LTC because they know that without it, just about everything you have and own can be wiped out. And because they don't want to wind up in a semi-charity situation, or become a burden to their children or siblings. Or in some cases, their parents. Debilitating accidents happen to people at every age. How about buying yourself a good LTC policy as a permanent gift to your family. Or how about paying, or helping pay, for premiums for a family member who can't afford it?

Bottom line: This is your decision. Whether to have coverage, how much to have and what to pay.

Could you use a little help from an expert?

If so, have we got a deal for you. Tomorrow at 10 a.m. our guest on the Your Turn with Mike Causey show will be Arthur Stein. He's a financial planner and an expert in both the federal LTC program and private sector plans. Take an hour out of your Veterans Day holiday (sleep late, then get us) either at www.federalnewsradio.com on the internet or at WFED 1500 AM.

He's going to talk about the premium increase choices you face, is one of the new plans better than your current option, and the expense differences between the current FLTCIP 1.0 plan and the newer FLTCIP 2.0 plan. And how do premiums in the federal program stack up against LTC plans offered by other plans? That one might surprise you.

Anyhow, listen if you can. Do it for yourself, for a spouse, children or family member.

If you have questions call in 877-936-9333 or email them to me at: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

MentalFloss reports the idea of toilet paper as a commercial product "started about 150 years ago, right here in the U.S.A."

USA! USA! USA!