AARP accepts everyone who is 50 years of age and older, so if you fall into this category, please read on.

 

Once your children are grown and gone, your financial obligations change dramatically. Your focus tends to shift from raising kids to paying for your retirement. While many people spend many hours considering their retirement savings and income streams, relatively few people consider their long-term care needs. As an Elder law attorney, my focus is on long-term care. I leave retirement savings to the financial planning profession. It takes both to have a comprehensive plan.

 

LONG-TERM CARE

 

Long-term care is a reality for over 50% of seniors in the

U.S.

We are living longer. Our bodies often outlive our minds. What happens then? If you haven’t considered your long-term care options, you need to do so right now. Why? Because long-term care is expensive. Long-term care can cost upwards of $5,000 per month. Where will that money come from? Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care. Unless you have a long-term care policy in place, consider this:

 

There are only three (3) ways to pay for long-term care in

America

:

 

          1. Out of your pocket and the pockets of your relatives;

          2. From a long-term care policy that you own;

          3. Medicaid

 

If you can afford $5,000 per month from now on out, read no further. You are set.

 

However, if you foresee your life savings running out before your long-term care needs run out, you might benefit from thinking through your options. One option is to purchase long-term care insurance IF you can afford it and IF you can still qualify. If you can’t qualify or can’t afford it, your only other option is to consider Medicaid as your provider of long-term care once your money has run out.

 

Let’s talk a little about Medicaid.

 

Medicaid is a joint Federal/State program that provides a wide range of benefits to the sick, the poor and the aged. For our purpose though, we will consider only what is known as “Institutional Medicaid”, that is, the benefits available to anyone needing long-term care.

 

Medicaid is administered by each state differently, so don’t assume your friend in

Florida

can speak to how Alabama Medicaid might treat you and don’t assume something that you read online is accurate about Alabama Medicaid. Ask an Elder law attorney in

Alabama

if you want the truth! Do not ask a Social Worker, an employee of a nursing home, a nurse or even your own doctor. And above all, do not assume the state Medicaid Agency is telling you all of your options. They have their interests in mind, not your’s.

 

Medicaid is a “needs-based” program, meaning that you must meet their requirements in order to receive benefits. However, if you meet their requirements, you may have all of your nursing home expenses paid for by Medicaid. This means that your medical expenses, housing expenses and food are paid for by Medicaid, so it is a valuable benefit, if you can qualify.

 

Federal law prohibits nursing homes from providing a different level of service to Medicaid residents than to private pay residents, so don’t assume that a Medicaid recipient will receive sub-standard care. The only person in the nursing home who knows who is paying for your care is the people in the billing office, not the doctor, the nurses, the therapists or the guy delivering food everyday. You will get the same level of care regardless of who is paying for it.

 

Who Needs Medicaid?

 

The most frequent situation we see is when one spouse develops a condition such as dementia that requires them to be under constant care and the other spouse, due to either her/his own health issues or time constraints, cannot provide the care needed. The spouse with Alzheimer’s disease needs more care than the healthy spouse can deliver, so some sort of community or facility is needed. It is important to note that mere dementia without other medical issues will not qualify for Medicaid, but there are normally other health issues that arise during this time that will allow him or her to qualify, so this isn’t normally a problem.

 

Medicaid qualification is difficult, time-consuming and fraught with expensive mistakes, so if you think Medicaid might be in your future, planning now might save you thousands of dollars later. Ask about it when we meet.