Medicaid

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Qualification For Medicaid, And Medicaid Spend Down

In order to qualify for Medicaid, one must generally be over 65 years old. One must also be sufficiently ill, and need sufficient assistance to qualify for Medicare pursuant to what is referred to as one’s service priority level.

In order to qualify for Medicaid from a financial perspective without special steps being taken, a person must have an income under $2,313 per month (in Oregon, as of June 2019). If a person has over this income, an income cap trust can usually be drafted to cure the problem.

Elder Law And Medicaid For Consumers

What People Need to Know to Protect Themselves and Their Families

Why is it in a person’s best interest to know something about Elder Law?

It can have significant effects on a person’s financial future, and on the financial future of the person’s family.

What is Elder Law?

Elder Law deals with Medicaid and related matters, in addition to Wills, Trusts, Probates, Powers of Attorney, and the like.

Why is it important to know about some of these issues?

Medicaid, Estate Planning, And Incapacity Planning

Things You Should Know

The cost of long term care and medication can easily exceed $10,000 per month per individual. Even in lower cost long term care situations, the cost often exceeds $4,000 per month.

Ten years of long term care at these rates, thus, ranges between $480,000 and $1.2 million.

In addition, if a person is not able to handle his or her own affairs, the cost of a protective proceeding such as a guardianship or a conservatorship can range between a few thousand dollars, and many tens of thousands of dollars.

Medicaid

There are two major government programs which provide medical benefits for senior citizens, some children, and certain persons with disabilities. One of these, Medicare, provides various hospital and outpatient physician and other health services. This can be compared to the health insurance that some employers provide.

Elder Law

Elder Law includes a wide range of subjects, including matters relating to Medicaid, including asset protection, Medicaid spend down, look back periods, avoiding or dealing with disqualification for Medicaid, and planning for a situation where one spouse needs to enter long term care, but the other may be able to remain in the home.