Long-term care is a common elder law issue because Medicare does not cover it, and LTC insurance is extremely expensive. Nursing home care can cost well over $100,000 a year, depending on where you live and the level of care needed. The average stay in a facility due to an accident or illness is a little over three years.
Most people expect to pay for nursing home care until their personal or family assets are gone, hoping they will eventually qualify for Medicaid assistance. Careful planning, however, can help protect your assets for your spouse or children. A common approach is to purchase long-term care insurance while healthy enough to qualify and make sure you receive eligible benefits under Medicare, Medicaid, or Veterans’ Benefits.
Medicare rules for nursing home coverage are so strict that it pays for less than nine percent of nursing home care in the US. And Medicaid is a joint federal-state program also subject to strict requirements. You must qualify to receive benefits, and the application process is tedious and time-consuming, which is why we recommend planning well in advance.
To qualify, you must be:
- Over the age of 64, or
- Blind or disabled, or
- A caretaker of a child, parent, or spouse in your household who is blind or disabled.
Veterans’ benefits are equally difficult to apply for and often denied even if you truly qualify. Attempting to apply for Medicaid or Veterans’ benefits without guidance may delay qualification and do more harm than good.
At Uniquely You Estate Planning, our elder law lawyers help clients get ahead of potential long-term care needs and expenses so they can live as independently as possible. New Hampshire’s median annual or monthly costs for care continue to rise. Nursing home expenses can seriously impact your family’s savings, retirement funds, or inheritance without the aid of Medicaid, Medicare, VA benefits, or Social Security.
Contact us to prepare for long-term care needs and other elder law issues.
Dawn DiManna, Esq., has over 15 years of legal experience helping clients in New Hampshire understand estate planning, elder law, asset protection, long-term care, proactive and crisis Medicaid planning, and Veterans planning. She began Uniquely You to help families discover ways to keep loved ones out of court and conflict and avoid financial collapse after a death or disability.
