When you are planning ahead toward your senior years, there are a few important things that you should know about nursing home care. One of them is the simple fact that most people require some form of long-term care eventually, and many of these individuals will ultimately reside in nursing homes.
Nursing homes are very expensive, and this is another fact of life that everyone should understand. We practice law in the state of Connecticut. Though nursing home costs are very high across the country, they are particularly high in our state.
At the present time, the entity that is conducting the most comprehensive research into the subject is Genworth Financial. According to their survey, the median annual cost for a private room in a nursing home in Connecticut is almost $159,000.
Since people often require multiple years of care, the numbers can get huge, and prices have been rising. The Genworth survey predicts a three percent per year growth rate over the next five years.
The last thing that we will pass along is this: Medicare does not pay for long-term care. To many people who have not looked into the subject, this comes as a surprise.
The Medicaid Program
Medicaid is a government health insurance program that does pay for long-term care. It actually pays for most of the nursing home care that is being received by seniors.
There is a $2000 limit on countable assets for an individual, because Medicaid is a program that is only available to people with financial need. This is the bad news, but on the positive side, there are some things that don’t count, including your home.
Plus, a healthy spouse can keep a certain store of shared assets if his or her spouse is applying for Medicaid to pay for long-term care. This is called the Community Spouse Resource Allowance. Unfortunately, there is a limit to this, and it stands at $119,220 during the current calendar year.
With regard to the rest, you can give gifts to your loved ones before you enter a long-term care facility. This is the route that many people take, but you have to be aware of the five-year look-back. The gift giving must be completed at least five years before you submit your application if you want to be approved immediately.
Obtain More Information About Medicaid
This blog post was intended to provide a very basic overview to get your attention so that you can start to consider the matter of long-term care if you have not already done so. If you would like to get all the facts, download our in-depth special report on Medicaid planning.
This report is being offered to our readers free of charge right now, and you can visit this page to get your copy: Hartford Connecticut Medicaid Planning.
Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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