Medicaid Five Year Look Back for regular people. (child, adult, parent)
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I have a couple of scenarios that I would like to present to see how the look back would affect them. These are just hypotheticals.
1. A married couple has 600K in savings, stocks, mutual funds, etc with half in husband's name and half in wife's name. They also own a home jointly worth 500K. Husband gets sick and needs to go to a nursing home. How would the 5 year look back be assessed? Would just the husband's finances in his name be part of the look back or would the wife's assets also be included?
2. A married couple has 600K in savings, stocks, mutual funds, etc with all being joint accts as well as a home owned jointly for 500K. How would the look back be assessed in this case?
It doesn't matter which name it is in, married couples must present joint assets. The home is usually allowed to stay with spouse as long as she is at home... they are now re-certifying Medicaid yearly...my mom just got on recently and I already got a stack of papers for her recert already..any changes in assets or income must be disclosed. The spouse is allowed to keep up to about $120,00 in SOME states, not all. No state would allow her to keep $300,000.
In any case, the husband would not qualify for Medicaid until he has spent down to having only $2000 in assets, so if he has $300,000 in his name, he has to private pay until that is gone. You wouldn't apply for Medicaid until you're about 6 months from $2000.00. Any assets deemed to have been given away would have to be accounted for first as well (i.e. if they think you gave $100,000 to a grandchild, Medicaid would refuse to pay the first $100,000 in nursing home fees). IMO, anyone with that much in assets would be wise to hire a lawyer NOW, not wait until care is needed.
"In general, the community spouse may keep one-half of the couple's total "countable" assets up to a maximum of $119,220 (in 2016). Called the "community spouse resource allowance," this is the most that a state may allow a community spouse to retain without a hearing or a court order. The least that a state may allow a community spouse to retain is $23,844 (in 2016).
You keep on bringing this up. I pay taxes too. I have paid them for decades and will continue to pay them even when I retire. So will everyone else. As for poor planning, you are off base about that. It is actually the opposite I'm talking about. It's people that have planned and saved that are getting the shaft when Medicaid impoverishes a healthy spouse to the point of only leaving them an unrealistic amount of 2K in savings to fall back on. If a couple has saved and planned for old age and one gets sick and the other one lives for 20 more years, that 2K isn't going to be any help to the healthy spouse.
A good nursing home is not an entitlement. Medicaid is for those who haven't planned and have no money. That's poor planning.
A good nursing home is not an entitlement. Medicaid is for those who haven't planned and have no money. That's poor planning.
That is IF you can afford one.
As to the 2nd part of your typical capitalistic republican derogative post, I hope you fall flat on your face one day while everyone else looks down on you and walks on. It's not just "poor planning" if any, that's what happens when you are poor and there is plenty on them and only getting worse.
You need to remove the "br" from your handle, then it would represent your selfish, condescending mentality.
You keep on bringing this up. I pay taxes too. I have paid them for decades and will continue to pay them even when I retire. So will everyone else. As for poor planning, you are off base about that. It is actually the opposite I'm talking about. It's people that have planned and saved that are getting the shaft when Medicaid impoverishes a healthy spouse to the point of only leaving them an unrealistic amount of 2K in savings to fall back on. If a couple has saved and planned for old age and one gets sick and the other one lives for 20 more years, that 2K isn't going to be any help to the healthy spouse.
Your post begs the question: What on earth have they planned and saved for? A cruise? Good Grief! I just spent money in savings on car repairs. Based on your theory, I should let the taxpayers buy me a new car so I can keep my savings for...God knows what!
Hint: That's what the money in savings was there for.
A good nursing home is not an entitlement. Medicaid is for those who haven't planned and have no money. That's poor planning.
I can't agree with that. My mother didn't plan on getting ill way before retirement age and taking lower and lower paying jobs to survive and would have depended on Medicaid nursing home had she needed one.
I'm not sure that most middle class people can save enough to finance a great nursing home for a couple's final years. Sure, people with wealth can do that, but probably most middle class people can't. Even those who have worked hard, as we have. My nursing home stay will have to be very short if I want a great one. And long term care insurance doesn't really look doable or good for us right now.
A good nursing home is not an entitlement. Medicaid is for those who haven't planned and have no money. That's poor planning.
Whoa! Hold your horses, Sister! Not every person who needs to go on Medicaid is a "poor planner.'
Hubby was a brilliant man, voted most likely to succeed by his high school classmates and teachers as a senior, was published in a prestigious Law Review during law school and was asked by his former graduate school professors to teach at the University level, when there was an unexpected vacancy, shortly after he graduated.
Yes, we planned and we planned long and hard. Hubby had ten years of college, multiple degrees and ended up started his law career in his late 20s. At that time I had both an undergraduate and graduate degree and several years of teaching experience. Since both of our parents were relatively poor there was little financial help from them for our undergraduate degrees but hubby and I both had a few small scholarships, worked one to two jobs every summer, plus worked during the school year so we managed to graduate with only a few small student loans.
But, after we married, before Hubby went to law school and I went to graduate school, it was a totally different story. I worked full time, while going to graduate school, and Hubby worked part-time and we still ended up needing, what to us, was a fairly substantial amount of student loans. We had barely finished paying off our student loans by the time that Hubby developed dementia in his late 40s.
Heck, virtually no help from Mom & Dad on anything after HS, we paid for the vast majority of undergraduate and for all of our graduate degrees by ourselves, we paid for our own wedding, plus scrimped and saved for the down payment of our first house. Hmmm, a lot different from some families, but I'm not complaining.
We thought life would be rosy. Hubby often mentioned how many trial attorneys continued working, at least part time, in their late 60s and often into their 70s. But, he knew that my job as a special education teacher was both physical and emotionally exhausting and hoped that I could retire earlier than that. He felt that our retirement years would be a blend of traveling to fun places and enjoying life.
I remember the old expression, "Man plans and God laughs."
Hubby was the main breadwinner and developed a type of early onset dementia in his late 40s. He lost the cognitive ability to be an attorney. So, this brilliant man, with multiple college degrees, was forced to take a low paying job that only required a HS diploma or a GED, because he wanted to continue contributing financially. And, as his dementia, and other health issues, progressed he was even forced to leave that job at age 58.
There is more. Do you want to hear about Hubby's Stage III colon cancer, in his early 50s. where he was near death multiple times, and had to miss extensive time from work several times (but unfortunately not enough time for disability to kick in)? Do you want to hear about my severe health issues (rheumatoid arthritis) that forced me to retire from my career four to six years earlier than I/we had planned? Do you think that these things did not effect our planning & saving for retirement? Well, I'll tell you that they were MAJOR obstacles.
There is even more than that but I hope that you get my point.
Sheesh. Yes, some people are poor planners but some people have health issue, after health issue and problem after problem that are far beyond their control.
Last edited by germaine2626; 06-13-2017 at 06:11 PM..
Whoa! Hold your horses, Sister! Not every person who needs to go on Medicaid is a "poor planner.'
Hubby was a brilliant man, voted most likely to succeed by his high school classmates and teachers as a senior, was published in a prestigious Law Review during law school and was asked by his former graduate school professors to teach at the University level, when there was an unexpected vacancy, shortly after he graduated.
Yes, we planned and we planned long and hard. Hubby had ten years of college, multiple degrees and ended up started his law career in his late 20s. At that time I had both an undergraduate and graduate degree and several years of teaching experience. Since both of our parents were relatively poor there was little financial help from them for our undergraduate degrees but hubby and I both had a few small scholarships, worked one to two jobs every summer, plus worked during the school year so we managed to graduate with only a few small student loans.
But, after we married, before Hubby went to law school and I went to graduate school, it was a totally different story. I worked full time, while going to graduate school, and Hubby worked part-time and we still ended up needing, what to us, was a fairly substantial amount of student loans. We had barely finished paying off our student loans by the time that Hubby developed dementia in his late 40s.
Heck, virtually no help from Mom & Dad on anything after HS, we paid for the vast majority of undergraduate and for all of our graduate degrees by ourselves, we paid for our own wedding, plus scrimped and saved for the down payment of our first house. Hmmm, a lot different from some families, but I'm not complaining.
We thought life would be rosy. Hubby often mentioned how many trial attorneys continued working, at least part time, in their late 60s and often into their 70s. But, he knew that my job as a special education teacher was both physical and emotionally exhausting and hoped that I could retire earlier than that. He felt that our retirement years would be a blend of traveling to fun places and enjoying life.
I remember the old expression, "Man plans and God laughs."
Hubby was the main breadwinner and developed a type of early onset dementia in his late 40s. He lost the cognitive ability to be an attorney. So, this brilliant man, with multiple college degrees, was forced to take a low paying job that only required a HS diploma or a GED, because he wanted to continue contributing financially. And, as his dementia, and other health issues, progressed he was even forced to leave that job at age 58.
There is more. Do you want to hear about Hubby's Stage III colon cancer, in his early 50s. where he was near death multiple times, and had to miss extensive time from work several times (but unfortunately not enough time for disability to kick in)? Do you want to hear about my severe health issues (rheumatoid arthritis) that forced me to retire from my career four to six years earlier than I/we had planned? Do you think that these things did not effect our planning & saving for retirement? Well, I'll tell you that they were MAJOR obstacles.
There is even more than that but I hope that you get my point.
Sheesh. Yes, some people are poor planners but some people have health issue, after health issue and problem after problem that are far beyond their control.
Your circumstances are the perfect example of how catastrophic events can and do wreck havoc on the planning for retirement. With your husband getting ill at such a young age, you guys never really had a chance to follow thru with the planning and strategies you put in place.
I have to say that your story has really touched me and made me keenly aware of so many things regarding retirement I never knew (like all the Medicaid stuff) or thought much about. The fact that everything someone has saved for retirement can all be wiped away in an instant if health issues or other catastrophic events occur is a sad and humbling thought. It has been such a shocking wake up call and has scared me tremendously.
Your post begs the question: What on earth have they planned and saved for? A cruise? Good Grief! I just spent money in savings on car repairs. Based on your theory, I should let the taxpayers buy me a new car so I can keep my savings for...God knows what!
Hint: That's what the money in savings was there for.
Really? You are asking why people save and plan for retirement? Okay I'll bite. They save because they will no longer be working and bringing in a monthly income. They save because they aren't depending on SS income to finance their retirement. They because they want to have a safety net in case something castastrophic happens like health issues or other things. They want to be secure in their old age and know that they will be able to pay their way and shock! shock! maybe even enjoy their retirement years stress free.
I'm not sure that most middle class people can save enough to finance a great nursing home for a couple's final years. Sure, people with wealth can do that, but probably most middle class people can't. Even those who have worked hard, as we have. My nursing home stay will have to be very short if I want a great one. And long term care insurance doesn't really look doable or good for us right now.
Right it's many thousands of dollars a month. Who could pay for that very long except wealthy people? It is certainly NOT just for the poor.
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