As the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age millions of people are asking questions about elder law issues. One of these is the matter of long-term care and how you are supposed to go about handling these expenses. Once you attain senior citizen status your life expectancy is going to exceed 80 years. People who reach an advanced age often require living assistance, and this can involve full-time residence in a nursing home or assisted living community. When you … [Read more...] about Spiraling Nursing Home Costs Raise Serious Questions
Medicaid
The Truth About Joint Accounts
The only way to be sure that you are doing things properly when you are making preparations for the latter stages of your life and your eventual death is to sit down and discuss everything with an inheritance planning expert. If you just follow the advice of a friend or take certain actions on your own you may be making mistakes that come back to haunt you (or your family) later on. Along these lines there are those who decide to use joint accounts as a way to provide access to their … [Read more...] about The Truth About Joint Accounts
Three-Year Look-Back Proposed for Veterans A & A
Because of the fact that Medicare won't pay for long-term living assistance the Medicaid program is used by many Americans to cover long-term care costs. There is a $2,000 upper resource limit, but a lot of your valuables don't count toward this figure such as your home and your vehicles. In addition, the healthy or community spouse can keep his or her half of shared resources up to a limit that stands at $113,640 in 2012. You cannot find out that you need long-term care one day and … [Read more...] about Three-Year Look-Back Proposed for Veterans A & A
Don't Jeopardize Special Needs Benefits
You have to see the big picture and think everything through when you are arranging for the transfer of assets to those that you love after you pass away. Each situation is different and you should carefully evaluate the recipients' needs and proclivities before taking any action. This is something that is very important when it comes to making provisions for someone in the family who may have special needs. People with disabilities often take advantage of programs such as Medicaid … [Read more...] about Don't Jeopardize Special Needs Benefits
Assisted Living Carries Big Price Tag
Budgeting for the latter stages of your life involves making intelligent long-term projections. If you want to be prepared for all contingencies you should be pragmatic and conservative with regard to your estimates. With this in mind, you would do well to consider the possibility of incurring long-term care expenses at some point in time. If you are fortunate enough to live into your senior years it becomes likely that you will need living assistance before all is said and … [Read more...] about Assisted Living Carries Big Price Tag
Community Spouse Medicaid Resource Limit Increased
A lot of people are amazed when they find out how expensive long-term care is these days. If you calculate the average annual cost for a private room in a nursing home coupled with the average length of stay the reality is that you may be looking at an expense that exceeds $200,000 toward the end of your life. This is obviously going to be difficult for a lot of people to handle out-of-pocket, and Medicare does not pay for long-term care. An alternative that exists would be to … [Read more...] about Community Spouse Medicaid Resource Limit Increased
Cuts To Medicaid May Be In The Offing
Many people have no idea how much long-term care costs or how likely it is that they're going to need it. This is a matter that is swept under the carpet because for one thing many individuals simply don't want to go there mentally, and when you're elder years are a long way off the subject may not seem relevant. But in reality it is a matter that you may want to take into consideration as soon as possible, because the expenses are considerable, most people will need care, and … [Read more...] about Cuts To Medicaid May Be In The Offing
Medicaid Spend Down And Look-Back Back Period
A lot of people do not concern themselves with budgeting for potential long-term care costs because they're under the impression that Medicare will cover these expenses. In reality, Medicare does not pay for an extended stay in a nursing home or assisted living facility. And if you're thinking that it will be simple to adjust to these expenses should they arise, you may not be aware of the present state of long-term care costs. Every year the MetLife Mature Market Institute culls … [Read more...] about Medicaid Spend Down And Look-Back Back Period
Medicaid: What Can Healthy Spouse Retain?
A lot of people are not aware of just how much a stay in a nursing home costs and they don't especially care, and this is often for one of two reasons. There are always going to be individuals who feel as though they will avoid all challenging circumstance, reasoning that these types of things only happen to "other people." And there are those who mistakenly assume that Medicare will cover everything once they reach the age of 65. The reality is that Medicare does not cover … [Read more...] about Medicaid: What Can Healthy Spouse Retain?
Medicare, Medicaid, & Your Retirement
Are you retiring sometime within the next 20 years? If you can answer this question yes, you are certainly among the many. These are very interesting times in elder law circles because of the fact that so many people are reaching retirement age at the same time. It is hard to wrap your head around this statistic but there are 10,000 people applying for Social Security every day right now and this is expected to continue for the next two decades. With so many people … [Read more...] about Medicare, Medicaid, & Your Retirement
