Thursday, January 22, 2015

Medicaid and Long Term Care

Many folks continue to believe - erroneously - that Medicare will cover most (if not all) of their long term care needs. It won't. But Medicaid probably will, if you lack the assets to self-pay.

Unfortunately, this requires that one "spend down" one's assets, accumulated over a lifetime of toil. To qualify for assistance from Medicaid to cover long term care expenses, one is allowed to keep only a small amount of cash, a home and a car, maybe a few baubles.

The good news is that buying a Partnership-qualified long term care insurance plan, one may offset some of that spend down, and keep more assets.

And, as local ElderCare Law guru Michael Millonig informs us via email this morning:

"Level of Assets That Spouses of Medicaid Recipients May Keep Rises for 2015 ... [For example] If a couple has $100,000 in countable assets on the date the applicant enters a nursing home, he or she will be eligible for Medicaid once the couple's assets have been reduced to a combined figure of $52,000 -- $2,000 for the applicant and $50,000 for the community spouse."

Click on through for more details.
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