The Medicaid program will pay for long-term care if you can meet the eligibility requirements. Though the program is supposed to be in place for the protection of people who have virtually no financial resources you can indeed retain ownership of a significant store of property and still qualify.
In fact, the majority of individuals who are residing in nursing homes utilize Medicaid to pay the bills. And, it should be noted that many of them retired with a reasonable store of financial assets.
There are limits to what you can retain. These limits are subject to change, and there are some changes in place for 2013 and we would like to share them here.
You may retain ownership of your home and still qualify for Medicaid. There is however an upper equity limit, and in 2013 this limit is $536,000. Each state has the option of raising this limit to as much as $802,000.
Then there is the matter of the community or healthy spouse. If you enter a nursing home, does your spouse’s share of community resources count against you?
The answer is no up to a certain limit. This year the healthy or community spouse may keep a maximum of $115,920. Each state can set its own maximum however, and the lowest allowable limit is $23,184 this year.
To qualify for Medicaid while retaining ownership of the maximum amount of property possible you must plan in advance with the benefit of expert guidance. To learn some of the details about planning ahead with eligibility in mind simply click this link to obtain our free report: Medicaid Planning Report
Larry Parman
Author, President and Founding Attorney
Parman & Easterday
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