Common Questions About Medicaid Planning

While many people make Medicare coverage part of their retirement plan, not everyone knows that Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care coverage. While some people plan on using long-term care insurance or private payment options if they ever need to relocate to a nursing home or assisted living environment, you may be able to use Medicaid to pay for the care costs as well. Let’s take a look at a few common questions about Medicaid planning and how it can help you.

Question 1: Isn’t Medicaid only for the poor?
Not anymore. Medicaid was originally envisioned as a healthcare safety net for the poor, disabled, elderly, single mothers, and others who couldn’t afford private health care. Since then, however, the program has expanded to cover many more people. It has also become incredibly complicated. Medicaid planning attorneys specialize in knowing the intricacies of Medicaid rules and using them to protect their client’s interests.

Question 2: Who can qualify for Medicaid?
Medicaid can pay for your long term care costs, but only if you qualify. Medicaid allows you to own your own home and still qualify for the program, but you must have other assets below a set amount. Also, you cannot have given gifts in excess of the asset limit for at least the past 5-years.

Question 3: When should I start Medicaid planning?
With any estate plan, sooner is always better, but especially so with Medicaid planning. Medicaid rules are notoriously complex. In fact, the Supreme Court once issued a ruling saying that Medicaid rules are complicated, they are “resistant to attempts to understand them” and constitute “an aggravated assault on the English language.” If you want to investigate what Medicaid planning can do for you, you’ll need to speak to your estate planning lawyer at your first chance.

Experienced estate planning attorneys Grand Forks ND of the Raymond J. German, LTD. offers estate planning and business planning resources to residents of Grand Forks ND. To learn more about these free resources, please visit www.raygerman.com today.
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