Medicaid Planning in New York: Strategies to Protect Your Assets

A comprehensive estate plan should account for the transfer of your property to your heirs after you die, but it should also account for the medical care and assistance with tasks of daily living that you might need in your old age. Medicare covers some healthcare costs for seniors, but even though it costs less than employer-provided health insurance, it does not come close to covering all your healthcare expenses. It also contributes little toward the cost of long-term care. The best case scenario is that Medicare will pay for three months of nursing home care over your lifetime; many seniors eventually need more than that. You can enter a nursing home as a Medicaid beneficiary, regardless of your age, but only after you have spent all the rest of your assets, and after you die, Medicaid will seek reimbursement for all the money it spent on your care, minus what it already paid itself by redirecting your Social Security check. Thinking about your future as a Medicaid nursing home beneficiary is no one’s idea of a good time, but you can come up with a feasible plan with the help of a Bronx estate planning lawyer.

Is Medicaid Your Only Choice for Long-Term Care?

The best way to avoid the indignities of life and death as a Medicaid nursing home beneficiary is to find a way other than Medicaid to pay for long-term care. For example, you can decide now that, when you need to enter a nursing home, you will sell your house and use the proceeds to pay for long-term care. Of course, that is not an option if you don’t own your house, or if your family needs to continue living in the house while you are in the nursing home.

The best way to protect yourself from financial catastrophe brought on by the costs of long-term care is to buy long-term care insurance. This insurance is only available and affordable if you are young enough and healthy enough that the insurers reasonably believe that you will be able to pay premiums for a long time before you start needing long-term care. If you do not qualify for long-term care insurance, the next best thing is to buy an annuity and use the payouts to pay for long-term care, or else to buy hybrid life insurance, which is less expensive than long-term care insurance and pays for up to five years of long-term care.

How to Avoid Running Afoul of the Medicaid Five-Year Lookback Rule

You can protect your assets from Medicaid asset recovery by transferring ownership of them to a trust or to a family member. This will only protect your assets if you transfer the property to the trust or the other person at least five years before you enter the nursing home, due to the Medicaid five-year lookback rule.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney

An estate planning lawyer can help you plan for a future where you will use Medicaid benefits to pay for long-term care.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Source:

apnews.com/article/nursing-home-medicaid-personal-needs-allowance-poverty-2e0a2d90d7d63d4b476397a50a9cddff