Posted on 02/28/2005 4:36:53 PM PST by bayourod
Medicaid is a joke, IN order to qualify for Medicaid your estate has to be down to $2500 dollars, That means you have to sell everything House , car, CD's everything and get down to $2500 before medicaid takes over,. If you transfer any money to your kids during the 5 years prior to your entry into a nursing home your kids have to pay it back. Setting up revokable trusts seems to be the way to avoid losing everything you worked for and it has to be done 5 years before you go to the nursing home.
I am pretty sure thats the way it works. By the way it used to be 2 years but Kennedy -Lieberman had it changed to 5, Not that the Kennedys will ever pay a nickel they already have trusts set up.
Yes, it does go against the old "grasshopper and the ant" story, doesn't it. The Wall Street Journal had a recent editorial on the Medicaid funds going to affluent seniors. There are seminars and lawyers to tell you how to transfer assets to qualify for Medicaid. In my state you can transfer a parent's assets after he or she has been in a nursing home for three years. At that point Medicaid takes over the full cost. It is perfectly legal from what I understand.
The editorial blamed Henry Waxman for closing down a long-term care insurance initiative that had held down costs in the states that adopted it. The states that adopted it were allowed to continue it and their Medicaid costs for long-term care are much lower than other states where it was blocked by Waxman.
I find myself in a position these past several months of having to do the fast track learning curve thing, due to my parents suddenly deteriorating (Pop's 91 and Mom's 84 next month).
Fortunately, they have sufficient assets to hold them quite awhile, but the current homecare provider rate in California runs right at $5000 a month for live-in; and that's after we did the buyout thing from the agency, which was costing $9000 a month. For reasons not worth going into here, keeping them in their own home is paramount.
Mrs. Batavia's mom died in 1991, and there was quite a bit of education picked up in that situation (altho she had virtually no assets)....the state of Minnesota could - and would - come back for several years to re-suck transferred assets...wifey was told by the lawyer it'd probably be a good thing to get her mum's wedding ring appraised, because it'd been given to her before the passing.
Ping to 22 and 24
Oops...make that 2001.
"I mean if everybody gets the same deal for no effort and those who put in extra effort get no payback, why put in the extra effort?"
You have just clearly outlined the economic miracle that is socialism.
I agree although there are many on this forum that do not.
Isnt there a distinction made between a married couple where only one needs to go into the nursing home, versus a situation where the person going into the nursing home, is unmarried, whether divorced, widowed or never married...
Its my understanding that when its a married couple and only one needs the nursing home, then the spouse on the outside is allowed to keep their home, one vehicle, and up to 60K in assets...once the spouse on the outside dies, or also needs the nursing home, then the home must be sold, all vehicles sold, and the spenddown to 2000....
At least this was the way it was written up a few years ago, when I looked into this...
This is an important subject for me and the hubby...we have slowly started over the years, handing down valuable family momentos...things that have a hefty dollar value, things we want to be passed down through the family, via our son...things we dont want sold, to take care of us in a nursing home...my hubby is 61, soon to be 62 and retiring in April...I am 59...seems like yesterday we were a young couple with two little boys, and now we are creeping up to the senior citizen name, and are worried about having to use nursing homes, should it ever come to that...
I cared for both my parents at home until they died...it was so hard, so emotional, yet so rewarding to do for them as much as I could...yet, I do not wish my son to ever do that for me...
We are actually going to visit my younger boy this weekend, to discuss this very subject...we plan to look into nursing home insurance and see what is out there...
Any hints and information are appreciated...
My mother spent over a year in a skilled nursing home. Her Social Security checks automatically were sent to pay for it. My brother and I tried to help out but we had to take care of our own families. Even so, my brother took out a loan. After my father's savings{which had already been almost depleted due to prescriptions,etc.} and other assets were used up, they said she could get Medicaid. The only thing that prevented them from taking the house was the fact that my father was still living there when she died. My father was so afraid of losing the house that he never told us kids about the pain he was experiencing. He died from cancer of the pancreas and liver about a year later. This was quite a few years ago and long term care insurance wasn't available.
Get that long term care insurance! Wifey and I have had it for three or four years (we'll both be 58 this spring); my parents did a fabulous job with setting up their trust for "when they're gone", but totally stuck their collective heads in the sand for this "transition period". When they were more mentally cognizant, they'd both blithely comment on how they'd just sort of drop dead at some convenient time.
I'd suggest consulting with the appropriate specialty of attorney (gag!)...shouldn't cost much at all, and you'd be right up to speed with your state's current laws and pitfalls.
(well, in so many words)
House and 1 car are safe, you do NOT have to sell them.
The way it works here the house is appraised the State takes half of it to pay for the spouses care, but they cant move the other spouse fron the house until death. At that time the kids get to sell the place and give the state their half or buy the state out. Unless the other spouse has gone in the nursing home and eaten up the other half. Medicare sucks IMO it certainly is no protection of property.
If you didnt own anything you used to go on Welfare and they paid the bill Now you go on Medicare, they take everything and you still end up with nothing, and instead of welfare they call it Medicare. So what good is Medicare.
I totally agree with your advice on long term care insurance. As I am divorced and live by myself in an apartment, my assets are not that great. But I have already given my son many of my valuables. Besides, why shouldn't he and his family enjoy them now. I already have.
We are definitely going to go with some sort of long term nursing home insurance...and I know, a lawyer would be a necessity, as we also want to have medical powers of attorney, and living wills drawn up...there is this murky transition time, where we are not 'real old', but are getting there, and getting to a point, where our health is probably only going to downward spiral...I read somewhere, that at about age 50, things really do start to go downhill medically, and tho you may try to watch your diet, and lifestyle, still the marching on of the years on the body is there, and it will only intensify....
We plan to jump in the RV, once the hubby retires, and drive until we drop dead, living on the road, and returning home only for short rests...Ha...that is our intention...but we realize that anything can happen, and we need to be ready for it...
I thought that hospice is for terminally ill patients. Terri is not.
There is alot of fraud in Medicare and I for one, want to see it cleaned up.
This happens everywhere, that's why we are in the mess we're in.
I really need to look into all of this..I know each state is different and has different rules and regulations concerning the house and the car, if one spouse is still not in the nursing home...
My husband is retired military, so he is looking into if there is anything that the military provides, at least for him, in the way of nursing home benefits...
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