Medicaid FAQs

Many seniors do not realize how much older people need to pay for medical costs during retirement.  It is commonly believed that Medicare will cover most or all costs once a person turns 65. The reality, however, is there are significant limitations to what Medicare will cover. It won’t pay for nursing home care, for hearing aides, for dental and vision care, and for a variety of other services that seniors may require. Medicare also does not always provide full and comprehensive coverage for all prescription medicines a senior needs.

Because of the fact Medicare isn’t as generous as many people believe it to be, problems arise when older people don’t save as much for medical care as they should.  Recent studies suggest that a couple might need to save around $350,000 for their medical care costs over their senior years. This was based upon the researchers calculating costs of supplemental Medicare, as well as calculating costs associated with prescriptions and other services not covered by Medicaid.  If a senior couple is in the 90^th percentile for prescription use, saving this $350,000 will still only give the couple around a 90 percent chance of making their money last.

Because these costs do not even include long term care, it quickly becomes clear that affording medical care during your golden years is difficult. Medicaid can help to cover costs Medicare doesn’t, but only if you can get covered.

Indiana Medicaid laws affect when and how you can qualify for Medicaid coverage for nursing home care or in-home long term care services.  Knowing these laws is very important to  making plans to pay for long-term care.  The reason why knowing Medicaid laws  is vital is that Medicaid is likely the only source of payments for long-term care services. Medicaid will cover you for custodial care in a nursing home, which is the basic routine daily care that most nursing home patients need. Medicare and private insurance policies do not pay for this care and, while long-term care insurance can cover long term care, policies are often prohibitively expensive and come with limitations that make them an impractical solution for affording care costs.

Because you will generally have to pay privately for long term care or nursing home care if you cannot qualify for Medicaid, you need to know Indiana’s laws on what it takes to get Medicaid to cover you. These laws include limitations on the amount of financial resources you can have while still getting covered.

If you have too many resources, you could be forced to spend your money on long term care until you have impoverished yourself, since you’ll have no other way to pay for this vital care. Only after your assets have been lost and you no longer have the chance to leave a legacy will you be able to get Medicaid to cover the care you need.  However, if you know the rules for qualifying for Medicaid in Indiana, you can take action and plan ahead to get covered while protecting your wealth.

Indianapolis Medicaid attorneys at Frank & Kraft will help you to make an advanced plan to ensure that you can protect the maximum value of assets while qualifying for Medicaid.

Medicaid is a means-tested program with limits on the assets you can have if you want to get covered for nursing home care.  If you have too many assets and resources, you won’t be able to get covered until you’ve spent down your wealth. However, if you talk with an attorney long before you need care, you can find ways to structure the ownership of your assets so the wealth you have won’t disqualify you from Medicaid and you won’t have to spend your wealth on getting care.