MEDICAID PLANNING
As life expectancies and long term care costs continue to rise, the challenge quickly becomes how to pay for these services. Many people cannot afford to pay $6,000 per month or more for the cost of a nursing home, and those who can pay for a while may find their life savings wiped out in a matter of months, rather than years. Fortunately, the Medicaid program is there to help. In fact, in our lifetime, Medicaid has become the long term care insurance of the middle class. But the eligibility to receive Medicaid benefits requires that you pass certain tests on the amount of income and assets that you have. The reason for Medicaid planning is simple. First, you need to provide enough assets for the security of your loved ones – they too may have a similar crisis. Second, the rules are extremely complicated and confusing. The result is that without planning and advice, many people spend more than they should and their family security is jeopardized.
What is Medicaid?
Medicaid is a jointly funded, Federal-State health insurance program for low-income and needy people. It covers children, the aged, blind, and/or disabled and other people who are eligible to receive federally assisted income maintenance payments.​ Learn more.
How Do I Qualify For Medicaid?
To qualify for Medicaid, applicants must pass some fairly strict tests on the amount of assets they can keep. To understand how Medicaid works, we first need to review what are known as exempt and non-exempt (or countable) assets. Exempt assets are those which Medicaid will not take into account (at least for the time being). In general, the following are the primary exempt assets:
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Home, (equity up to $636,000). The home must be the principal place of residence. The nursing home resident may be required to show some “intent to return home” even if this never actually takes place.
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Personal belongings and household goods.
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One car or truck.
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Certain income-producing property.
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Burial spaces and certain related items for applicant and spouse.
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Up to $1,500 designated as a burial fund for applicant and spouse.
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Irrevocable prepaid funeral contract up to $10,820.
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Value of life insurance if face value is $1,500 or less. If it does exceed $1,500 in total face amount, then the cash value in these policies is countable.
All other assets are generally non-exempt, and are countable. Basically, all money and property, and any item that can be valued and turned into cash, is a countable asset unless it is one of those assets listed above as exempt