What have you learned about protecting assets?

My wife went onto Medicaid in 2009 after four years of being in a private pay nursing facility. at that time the cost of a room was $4500 a month...Today the same nursing home charges $9500 a month for a room.

I have found the Medicaid program to be very generous. She pays her Social Security and nothing else for this care....Previously we had to spend down to $2000 for HER assets and a fraction but fairly substantial amount of our former assets for MINE , as the "community spouse" (meaning I was still at home in the"community.") I was able to keep one vehicle and remain in the home, as well as all my income. We did not choose to buy long term care insurance prior to my wife's stroke in 2005.

I share your concern about working, saving, and then having to spend one's assets on healthcare before Medicaid "kicks in." Yet, in our case, had it not been for Medicaid, we would have lost lost our home, all of our liquid assets, car etc., and my income in order to "try" to pay for my wife's care.

Presently Medicaid continues to pay for her care, eight full years after they commenced to pay for it...she went onto it. That means that my fellow taxpayers have ponied up the tab for her care for 96 months. At current prices, that has saved me $114,500 every year for eight full years...(I note that Medicaid does not pay nearly that amount, but had I borne the cost on my own, it would have cost me that.)

One day, when both my spouse and I have died, Medicaid will seek to take ownership of our house, so as to partially mitigate the cost of her care all these years...The house currently has a market value of around $140,000. Seems like a fair trade to me.

You may wish to consider consulting a well-recommended elder care attorney.

Grace + Peace

Bob

I've saved money for my retirement. I hope to live long enough to be able to spend it on healthcare for me and my husband.

I'm not sure what one's life savings are for, if not to spend on one's living expenses and care.

I grew up with the dictum that whatever money my parents saved was going to be spent by them, one way or the other. And that we needed to make our own way in the world and not rely on the idea of an "inheritance". While we were growing up, we watched nearby cousins become entangled in the machinations of an elderly and truly evil grandmother who sought to manipulate and control by means of threats and promises about her will. They all fell for her load of crap; when she died, there was no estate at all.

If you want your children to get ahead, give them an education and push them out of the nest.

Isn't one of the reasons you save and put away fiances for the future to pay for care that you will need.
Your kids do not want your house.
Most likely they do not want the dining set or the grandfather clock or the silver or china. They will sell the house, the dining set, clock and silver and dishes.
What they don't want is to take care of an elderly parent.
Use the money to provide yourself with good quality care, find a community that will allow you to transition from independent living to assisted to memory care if it is needed.
Do everyone a HUGE favor and draw up your papers sooner rather than later. Will, POA, Health Care POA and complete documentation as to what treatments you want and do not want. (CPR, Intubation, Feeding Tubes, can they be used temporary or long term or not at all)
Spend a bit of money pay a lawyer to draw up the paperwork, if you want use an irrevocable trust but this removes many decisions from you or at least you have to work with someone that has control over your finances.
If you are young enough now look into LTC (Long Term Care policy) This will cover a lot that your Health insurance does not cover nor Medicare.
Why would you expect the government and the taxpayers to provide for you if you have the money to care for yourself.
I would much rather have the ability to CHOOSE the type of care I get rather than having minimal care forced upon me.

Be thankful you have it and we're able to work for it. Enjoy the moments in life now that you can. Should you need extensive healthcare be thankful you can pay for it and not burden the next generation with your care. Also if you are able to pay for it it will probably be a greater degree of care than Mrdicaid would be able to provide if Medicaid even exist in the future!

Maybe I didn't phrase my question right.

I'm not talking about millions of dollars, or cheating Medicaid. I'm talking about people who have worked hard their whole lives, paying taxes thereby funding Medicaid, only to have everything spent down.

Thank goodness there isn't any way that one can protect their assets if they need Medicaid in the future. If Medicaid had no way to be reimbursed then it would cease to be a program.... or our taxes would skyrocket. Remember, Medicaid is funded by us, the taxpayer.

I would be quit upset if I had to pay for someone's care knowing they had multi-millions assets and found some way to hiding these assets from Medicaid.

I am so thankful that Medicaid is there to help the elders. Otherwise many adult children, even adult grandchildren, would need to quit their job to take a shift to care for an elder, thus their own savings are gone, and the circle just keeps going around and around.