What is Medicaid?

Medicaid is a federal government program created by the Social Security Act (Title XIX), in which each of the states financially and administratively participates, which provides financial assistance to persons age 65 and over, or those under 65 who are disabled and who are in need of substantial medical assistance. Medicaid is a needs-based program where a person must have a medical need for the assistance and must be of limited financial means before he or she may qualify.

As people are reaching age 65, more and more will spend their last days in a nursing home. Unfortunately, with the rising costs of long-term care, many people cannot afford to pay privately for home health care, assisted living, or nursing home care. A semi private room in a nursing home can run any anywhere between $6,400/month to $7500/month - that’s $76,800 to $90,000 per year! More, if the nursing home is located outside of Florida where the cost of living is higher. There are three ways to pay for this expense:

(1) Pay the costs out of your private funds. Based upon the current costs of long term care, this will quickly take a substantial bite out of even the most financially secure of individuals.

(2) Purchase long-term healthcare insurance, if you can both afford it and qualify for it. As many seniors find when applying for long-term care insurance, the high expense due to age or health issues makes this option unavailable. If you can qualify and afford the premiums, you should consider purchasing long term care insurance which qualifies for Florida’s Long Term Care Partnership Program. This partnership program can protect a substantial amount of your assets if the nursing home stay exceeds the maximum payout under the policy as it allows you to exempt, dollar for dollar, assets equal to the amount the policy has paid out on your behalf. This can literally save your family tens of thousands of dollars which might otherwise have to be spent on your care or lost to Medicaid Recovery at your death. We can help you determine which policies are best for you from the products available.

(3) Apply for and qualify for Medicaid benefits. Due to the financial burden of long term care, it is easy to see why more and more people are turning to Medicaid for assistance. Simply giving away your assets can lead to disaster as Medicaid has a five year (or longer under certain circumstances) ‘look back’ period when it comes to transfers of assets and can cause you to be disqualified for benefits. The penalty period imposed by the new federal law can be harsh depending on the amount of gifting. Consult with an experienced elder law attorney before gifting away any assets and before making application for Medicaid benefits.
 

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