Will I Lose my Life Savings if I Have to go To a Nursing Home?

Medicaid lawyers help you to afford nursing home care. Once you’ve reached the age of 65, you have a 40 percent chance of someday requiring care in a nursing home, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Nursing home care can be astronomically expensive, which means that if you require this care for any length of time, there is a very real threat to your financial security unless you can get the care paid for by an outside source. Many older people who need nursing home care will end up staying in a care facility for at least five years, as the Wall Street Journal indicates anyone whose reached the age of 65 has a 20 percent chance of needing nursing care for at least that duration of time.

It is important to plan ahead for covering the costs of care just in case you are one of the older people who ends up in a nursing home. Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can help. Our legal team will work closely with you to ensure you are able to get your care costs covered when you need to, without spending your entire life savings to meet your medical and personal needs. It’s best to act early if you may need nursing home care in the future, and since anyone and everyone could one day require care, that means it is best for everyone to act well in advance of the time when such care becomes required. You should give us a call today to get your personalized plans in place so you won’t have to worry about ending up in a nursing home.

Will You Lose Your Life Savings if You Require Nursing Home Care?

If you require nursing home care and haven’t made an advanced plan to ensure that care is covered by some kind of third-party payor, you may have no choice but to pay for the care on your own – which likely means that you will indeed lose your life savings.

Your life savings is at risk because nursing home costs thousands of dollars per month… and these big bills aren’t usually covered by any type of standard health insurance policy. Medicare, which most seniors depend upon to cover the bulk of their healthcare costs, pays only for brief periods of skilled nursing care. This isn’t the kind of care most seniors need. Most older people need routine help with activities of daily living, or custodial care – which Medicare pays nothing at all for.

Medicare Advantage plans, Medigap and supplementary insurance policies that Medicare recipients sometimes buy also won’t pay for nursing home care. And, other kinds of private health insurance won’t pay for custodial care either. While you can buy long-term care insurance to pay for nursing home care, there are problems with many policies including very high premiums and restricted coverage… making this an impractical option.

As a better alternative, you should consider making plans to qualify for Medicaid coverage in case you need nursing home care. Medicaid will pay for custodial care in full so you don’t have to pay out-of-pocket. The downside, however, is that Medicaid is a means-tested benefits program. Because it is means-tested, you will only be able to get Medicaid if you don’t have too many financial resources.

If you’ve worked to buy property and build a nest egg, you probably have too many financial resources. You could end up having to spend your money and sell some of your property before you have impoverished yourself enough for Medicaid to pay for you. Medicaid estate recovery could allow the state to come after property that you still own when you pass away if the state paid for your nursing home care or covered certain other care costs for you as a senior. If you want to avoid all of this potential loss, you need to act as early as you can to structure ownership of your wealth so your assets don’t count as financial resources that disqualify you from Medicaid.

Getting Help from Medicaid Lawyers

Medicaid lawyers at Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates will assist you in making certain that you can qualify for care when you need it. Our legal team works closely with you to protect your wealth while getting Medicaid to cover your costs for nursing home care or home healthcare. To find out more about why making a Medicaid plan is important and how the process works, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 860-548-1000 or contact us online today for help.

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