Can Medicaid Take My Home?

When you plan your estate, you work with an estate planning attorney to devise a strategy for transferring your assets after you pass away. However, if you want to be comprehensively prepared for the future, you should consider the eventualities of aging. For many, Medicaid planning is part of the equation.

Living Assistance

It can be hard to imagine a time when you will be unable to handle your activities of daily living, but the statistics are quite eye-catching. Seven out of every 10 people who are turning 65 are going to need long-term care eventually, according to a government agency.

Medicare is not set up to absorb long-term care costs. If you need in-home care, nursing home care, or outside-of-the-home living assistance, you can’t count on Medicare to help with the expenses.

Long-term care is very expensive, and these costs could decimate your savings.

Medicaid Planning

Medicaid will pay for living assistance, and it is the long-term care solution for a very significant percentage of senior citizens. The program is theoretically intended for people with very limited financial resources, but people often qualify by giving away assets before they apply for Medicaid coverage.

Medicaid and Your Home

When Medicaid is considering your application, your countable assets are tallied. Fortunately, your home is not considered to be a countable asset, but there is an equity limit. We practice law in the state of Iowa. In our state, the equity limit is $543,000 in 2014.

It should be noted that there is no equity limit at all if a healthy spouse is remaining in the home while his or her spouse enters a nursing home or assisted living community.

Medicaid Recovery

Medicaid is a jointly run federal/state program. Under federal guidelines, the states are required to seek recovery after the passing of a Medicaid recipient. If you were utilizing Medicaid to pay for long-term care, the state could seek recovery from your estate.

However, some states are more aggressive than others when it comes to Medicaid recovery efforts.

Technically speaking, your home could be targeted if it was still in your name at the time of your death. The good news is that there are legal steps that you can take to make sure that your house remains in the family.

Medicaid Planning Report

You should certainly absorb all the information that you can if you are concerned about future long-term care costs. We have prepared an in-depth special report on Medicaid planning, and it will provide you with a great deal of solid information.

The report is being offered free of charge, and you can obtain access through this website. To get your copy of the special report, click this link: Davenport IA Medicaid Planning.