Medicaid - Housing Expense Question

[germaine2626]

Originally Posted by Blondy

Its not an imminent concern. She wouldn't be able to self pay from her yearly income. She would be able to self pay from her income supplemented by her assets for a while.....unknown how long at this point.

I'm just looking at various scenarios that could develop down the road and trying to make sure we do the smartest thing with her money.

She may never need or qualify for Medicaid, but there is a reasonable possibility she would.

Frankly, IMHO, everyone (except maybe multi-millionaires) should be thinking ahead about maybe needing Medicaid some time in the future. The cheapest memory care facilities (in my medium COL area) cost about $7,000 a month so two years of self pay would be $168,000, add in medical bills and medications and that is a very substantial figure.

While most elderly people are only in facilities a fairly short time, before they pass away, I have met several people whose loved one was in a facility for 10 or 15 years (one close to 20 years).

BTW, the most expensive memory care facility, in my area, is about $14,000 a month or $336,000 for two years (but they never accept Medicaid so once you run out of money you are kicked out).

[Blondy]

Originally Posted by germaine2626

Frankly, IMHO, everyone (except maybe multi-millionaires) should be thinking ahead about maybe needing Medicaid some time in the future. The cheapest memory care facilities (in my medium COL area) cost about $7,000 a month so two years of self pay would be $168,000, add in medical bills and medications and that is a very substantial figure.

While most elderly people are only in facilities a fairly short time, before they pass away, I have met several people whose loved one was in a facility for 10 or 15 years (one close to 20 years).

BTW, the most expensive memory care facility, in my area, is about $14,000 a month or $336,000 for two years (but they never accept Medicaid so once you run out of money you are kicked out).

I agree. Unless as you said, you are a multi-millionaire, or someone with guaranteed income that would always exceed the cost of a nursing home, or someone with long term care insurance and/or income that would cover self pay indefinitely why would you not consider the possibility of your money running out and needing Medicaid.

Like you I know people who have been in nursing homes for 10 or more years and most of them were women in my mother's family! As I said, she has a history of longevity in her family. Several women living to mid to late 90's and a couple to 100.

I can also forsee a situation where my mother wants to stay at home and my sister enables that long past the point she is capable of dealing with it necessitating one or more shifts of home health care aides which is probably even more expensive and will burn through my mom's money more quickly.

In any case, I always plan for the worst case/most expensive case and make back up plans from there. Not sure why anyone would do anything less.