I want to apply for Medicaid for our Mom, my sister objects. Who can help me, in over ruling her objection?

Also lemon lily - you mention wanting to do a Miller Trust. Miller or a Qualifying Income Trust (QIT) is a specific legal vehicle used to qualify for NH Medicaid or if your state does Medicaid AL diversion funding. It is a true godsend for those who just make too much monthly income to ever qualify for Medicaid but never will have income to private pay for a NH.

Is mom perchance railroad retirement? We have those in our family and thats why I'm familiar with Miller as RR pays really really well (3K - 4K) a mo but it's just not enough to private pay NH which run from 5K - 15K a mo. For Miller to work, they have to qualify in all other ways for Medicaid (so they have spent-down their non-exempt assets to whatever the ceiling is for how Medicaid runs in your state) and then Miller is done for their "too much for Medicaid" monthly income. The income has to be from a guaranteed source - it has to "qualify" - so that the income every month is assured to happen. You need to find out if your mom's income is from a guaranteed source, not all retirements are. Since it is a trust there is a beneficiary and the beneficiary is always the state under Miller - family gets none - zero - nada of any of the funds in Miller. If mom dies and there is $ 103.00 in the account, the beneficiary is the state. Understand? You do Miller before they apply to Medicaid

Now Miller is dependent on your state laws. Some states have Miller so that all their income goes to their Miller trust (which you establish at a bank & in which all their income gets direct deposited into) and in-turn all goes to the NH and then NH places whatever small amount is allowed for their personal needs allowance ($ 35 - 90 a mo) and held for them @ the NH. Some states allow for the personal needs allowance to stay in the trust and you can spend that money to buy things for your parent (like clothing, hair salon). Miller really has to be done by an attorney with experience in these as they need to be flexible and according to state trust & death laws. Someone posted on this site a couple of months back on doing one for their mom in FL and it ran like $ 1,500 for legal and it was set up turn-key so that all the parents income went direct to the NH so family had no management or trustee items to deal with.

If you are doing Miller, you kinda need to set up the trust bank account for their income to go into BEFORE they ever apply for Medicaid too. You want to put in just whatever is the absolute minimum needed to have an account at the bank.
If you wait to do the Miller after they apply for Medicaid, their Medicaid application will be denied as their income is just too high. You have to reapply or deal with the whole Medicaid appeals process. Miller really needs to be done right before the Medicaid application is done to make all this the most efficient

About the insurance policy, what happens on them for Medicaid will depend on if the policy is TERM or WHOLE LIFE. Most term have no cash value, so there is nothing to cash in for Medicaid qualification. But you need to check as some term have a dividend paid if the policy is paid up and that will need to be disclosed & reported to Medicaid (my mom's term policy has a smallish dividend that is plowed back into her policy annually and it is OK by Medicaid). But if the policy is whole life there will be a cash value. The cash value will have to be cashed-in and used towards their spend-down before Medicaid will pay. You need to carefully look at the policy to see what they are and what it has built up to and getting it from the insurance company. Either mom or her DPOA (if it clearly states they can do all financial within their DPOA) will have to do this with the insurance company. It could take a few weeks to do too and there usually will be fees attached to doing this which are taken out of the cash-out. I've just found that insurance companies move glacially so maybe start on insurance stuff first. Actually dealing with insurance could be a way for you & Sissy to work together on something if you let Sissy know you don't want to at all change her beneficiary status but instead want to do whatever to keep the funds in the insurance policy and still be able to qualify for assistance for mom. Good luck lily.

lemonlily - I'm going to approach this somewhat differently. What is mom's current living situation??? (at home, in AL, in NH) and how is mom's daily needs being paid for and provided by??? Also what do you see happening that makes you want to have mom apply for Medicaid - like what are you envisioning that Medicaid can do that will benefit your mom?

If mom is in a facility right now, how is it being paid for and how much longer will mom have the funds to pay? If mom is at home, is mom's income (the money she gets each month like from SS and retirement or annuities) being used to support both mom's living AND ALSO Sissy's? A bit more info will help for those of us on this forum to give you some ideas and our experiences!

If the bank accounts and life insurance are more than $2000, you would have to spend them first. That's right the life insurance! Most policies have a cash value and Medicaid will tell you to cash it in! And a Miller's Trust is a joke! It protects nothing! The Trust becomes payable to Medicaid when she dies. Sorry, but I think sis is on the right track.