Do you have a Medicaid plan in place? There is a very good chance that the answer to this question is no. Many people do not even realize that making a Medicaid plan is something that they should do. In reality, though, creating one is extremely important if you want to make sure that your financial future is secure and that you are going to be able to leave a strong legacy behind.
A Medicaid plan enables you to protect your assets while being able to get essential nursing home care services that you might need as you get older. Here are three very important reasons why making this type of plan is vital if you want to protect your wealth and leave behind a legacy for your loved ones.
1. There’s a very good chance that you will need nursing home care sometime during your lifetime.
One of the most important reasons to make a Medicaid plan is because the odds are that you are going to need one. According to the Genworth Cost of Care Survey, seven people out of every 10 who reach the age of 65 are going to require long-term care during the course of their lifetime. This means you have a better than 50% chance of ending up in a position where you must go into a nursing home or when you must have a home health aide come to your home or must receive a similar type of care.
The unfortunate reality is that Medicare does not cover nursing home care in most situations, nor does private health insurance. Medicare and some insurance companies will paid for skilled care if you are eligible for it depending on your policy. This would include things like a stay in a rehabilitative facility after undergoing a medical procedure in a hospital. There are very stringent requirements to meet for becoming eligible for skilled care, though.
For the majority of people who end up in a nursing home, the goal is not rehab or other skilled services. Instead, most people who must go into a nursing home need custodial care. Custodial care is routine help with activities of daily living. If you have a hard time doing basic tasks like bathing or dressing yourself, this would be custodial care — and it will not be paid for by Medicare or your other health insurance.
Medicaid does provide coverage, but only if you can meet eligibility requirements that require you to have very few financial resources. If you want to preserve your money and property while qualifying for Medicaid so you can get your nursing home paid for, you are going to need to work with an experienced attorney to make a Medicaid plan.
2. Nursing home care comes at a very high cost
There’s also another very important reason why you need a Medicaid plan. The reality is that even if you do have a lot of assets, they are going to disappear very quickly when you consider just how expensive it actually is to get care at a nursing home. According to Genworth’s Cost of Care survey, a semi-private room in a nursing home comes at an average cost of $8,669 per month. If you want a private room at a nursing home, that would cost you an average of $9,733 per month.
Trying to pay for all of this yourself could drain even the biggest bank account, and you don’t want to be forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of care that you need in order to not spend everything you have.
Most people want to be able to leave most of their money and property to their children, rather than losing all of it to pay for a nursing home. If you have a Medicaid plan, you can preserve the wealth you have built up during the course of your life. This money can help to provide a secure future for those you care about.
3. There’s a five-year lookback period when qualifying for Medicaid
Finally, there is a very important reason why you do not want to wait too long to make a Medicaid plan. Sadly, there is never any clear way to predict when you will develop a physical or mental condition that results in a need for nursing home care or in a need for a health care aide at home.
Of course the chances of this increase as you get older, but there are no guarantees in life that something won’t happen to you at a relatively young age, like a serious stroke or early onset dementia, which can result in you having to go into a nursing home long before the time that you might have assumed this would happen to you.
If you have waited to make a Medicaid plan, you could have problems if it turns out that you need nursing care sooner rather than later. That’s because Medicaid has a five-year look-back period and certain transfers of assets during that period can result in you becoming disqualified from eligibility for a period of time. This could mean you have no choice but to pay those expensive out-of-pocket fees for nursing care.
You do not want this to happen to you, so you owe it to yourself and the people who you care about to make a Medicaid plan while you still can before the day comes that you need nursing home care. The Edwards Law Firm can offer you the help and support that you need. Give us a call at 904.672.7600 or contact us online to speak with a Jacksonville area estate planning lawyer and get the help that you need to make your plans toady. When the time comes and you are ready if you must go into a nursing home, you will be very glad that you made the effort.
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