Medicaid is very important to many elders because most of the nursing home care that is provided in the United States is paid for by this joint federal/state program.
Even if you were to enter into retirement with some reasonably significant savings they could be swallowed up by long-term care costs. In 2012 the average annual charge for a private room in a nursing home exceeded $90,000 throughout the United States.
Senior citizens have a 40% chance of requiring nursing home care eventually, and 10% of people in nursing homes ultimately reside in the facilities for at least five years.
It is possible to qualify for Medicaid to pay for long-term care while still keeping significant resources in the family. There are some dollar limits, and they have been updated for 2013.
This year you will be able to keep your house with an upper equity limit of $536,000 and still be able to qualify. It should be noted that this figure can be raised to $802,000 at the discretion of the state within which you reside.
In a case where the healthy spouse is continuing to reside in the home no upper equity limit applies.
Another change for 2013 is the limit on the amount of the shared resources that can be retained by the healthy or community spouse. If your spouse was to require nursing home care you could keep up to $115,920 of shared assets. This limit is also at the discretion of each individual state, but the minimum amount has been set at $23,184.
If you would like to discuss Medicaid planning with a licensed professional, feel free to contact us to arrange for a free consultation. We can be reached at 317-684-1100. You can also get in touch through this link: Free Medicaid Planning Consultation
Paul A. Kraft, Estate Planning Attorney
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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