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Location: When things get hot they expand. Im not fat. Im hot.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheShadow
How would someone ever qualify for medicaid with an ongoing monthly income over the medicaid limit? A couple with a "permanent" income of pensions and SS exceeding the medicaid limits could spend every penny they have saved on one spouse's LTC, and sell their house, and spend all the house money on it too, and still wouldn't qualify for medicaid based upon their annual income. Then the LTC charges would just pile up as a debt, I guess, that the surviving spouse would have to pay on monthly until they die? I understand they have planners but what would a planner suggest in this instance? I'm not asking rhetorically, I really would like to know.
I'm not saying the system is "wrong". People who can pay, should pay for care. And if the government recovers the taxpayer money from their home after the "community" spouse dies that's fair, but the LTC rates are far too high for even upper middle class people to pay and for the community spouse to still have money to live on. That's why, with our income and assets, I'd sell the house and go into a non-profit CCRC with the spouse while we still had money to pay the buy-in and the monthly fees. One could stay in IL and the other in AL or MC.
BTDT in 2022. Husband was the one applying for Medicaid. I was the community spouse. The Medicaid income limit applied to my husband only since he was the one applying for Medicaid. Once he was approved, they took his SS to pay for the SNF.
As the community spouse I kept my house and my car and a monthly income. I did have to put all my savings into Medicaid compliant annuities. These are immediate fixed annuities with the state as first beneficiary.
I don't have to make any monthly payments. Medicaid gets their money back when I die. They get back what they paid for his care from the annuities. If there's anything left over it goes to the second beneficiary. If I live to 110 nobody gets anything from the annuities. Medicaid gets nothing from my estate. Only from the annuities.
Personally I think this is fair. People should pay for their care.
This is where the poor have a HUGE benefit. There are funds thru Medicaid to pay for in-home help, even supervision. You'd probably not get enough hours but technically, a person could get paid to watch this person. Up to what equates to about 10 hrs a day if I recall. The poor are better equipped for this event than anyone else.
They also tend to be a whole heck of a lot more savvy when it comes to obtaining government benefits because it isn't their first rodeo having to do that.
They also tend to be a whole heck of a lot more savvy when it comes to obtaining government benefits because it isn't their first rodeo having to do that.
They may need to be such as the disabled. I have nothing against them
They may need to be such as the disabled. I have nothing against them
I have nothing against disabled people but the learning curve on government benefits is going to lower for someone accustomed to how government social safety nets work. All the rules about eligibility, how to stay eligible, etc are not necessarily intuitive.
One bad thing with medicaid, or other government programs for the needy, is that if family wants to help financially, then it could mess up the person's eligibility, so if family is going to help, just to make things a bit nicer for their family member, it has to be on the down-low, otherwise a charitable gift ends up being clawed back to repay medicaid. Not the same program but as an example, I once helped my mom pay rent on a place that was a bit more than her government assistance check and they said she'd have to move to a cheaper place or lose her entire check. Cheaper places didn't exist and the list for subsidized housing was looooong. No places she could afford on her check, and I'm was not "allowed" to help her financially. WTH?
One bad thing with medicaid, or other government programs for the needy, is that if family wants to help financially, then it could mess up the person's eligibility, so if family is going to help, just to make things a bit nicer for their family member, it has to be on the down-low, otherwise a charitable gift ends up being clawed back to repay medicaid. Not the same program but as an example, I once helped my mom pay rent on a place that was a bit more than her government assistance check and they said she'd have to move to a cheaper place or lose her entire check. Cheaper places didn't exist and the list for subsidized housing was looooong. No places she could afford on her check, and I'm was not "allowed" to help her financially. WTH?
Those are rules for SSI which is designed to keep them homeless unless they can get into a subsidized apartment. meaning they are not allowed to get ahead on their feet no matter what or they are cut off completely. It's a real bad program which needed changed decades ago, a cruel program. My schizophrenic Brother in law got it, I gave him $20 for Xmas and they kept it when he told them.
I am not sure that would apply to medicaid for Seniors who are going into a nursing home. I am not familiar with those rules but are pretty familiar with Medicaid in general. In our State, You can own one home of ANY value as long as your income falls within the medicaid guidelines.
Thanks for the heads up, it's good that everyone check the rules first
It's funny how in our society we stand back and watch people choose to be homeless and camp on our city streets and in our parks but the very idea of a person afflicted with dementia choosing to maintain their autonomy and live out their remaining time on earth in a quiet cabin in the woods is somehow inconceivable.
But, nope, my only options are supposed to be: 1) Make my husband's life a living hell as he tries to care for me at home 2) Go to a nursing home, leaving my husband in financial hardship 3) "check myself out" and leave this world.
I'll take option 4) Dodder around in my comfy, familiar cabin with my favorite foods, cozy bed, well stocked bar, happy pictures hanging on the walls and not a sole to answer to until the good Lord calls me home.
Well, that was my sister’s plan kind of, she was very happy at her little house. Then she lost the ability to walk. Appears that might be part of the vascular dementia. She now has Alzheimer’s on top of the vascular dementia. And there are suggestions that she has Lewy bodies Dementia.
Your plan sounds comforting. I can’t fault you for comforting solutions in the face of a horrible horrible devastating diagnosis. Your father’s — not you. But as my doctor said to me when I turned the age that my father died, you are not your father. It is not a given that that is the path you’re going to take.
I say that after escaping the same fate as my father at 64. Thank heaven for medical science and the progress they have made in heart disease in 40 years…
__________________ Solly says — Be nice!
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Solly says — Be nice!
