Page 35 - Growing Old Without a Plan for Long Term Care is not for Sissies_Neat

Uncle Sam’s Got My Back, Right? 17 Medicaid pays for nursing home care but currently does not pay for home health care or assisted living facilities except in very limited circumstances. Also, not all nursing homes accept Medicaid patients or they may have a limited number of beds available for Medicaid patients. This means your choice of location for receiving care might be limited. As a country, we have decided that taking care of those who can’t afford to take care of themselves is a worthy goal. I agree this is important and I don’t mind some of my tax dollars going to pay for the care of those in need. Still, reality says that money available in state and federal budgets is not suffcient to pay for long term care for everyone, especially those who can afford to pay for their own care. Limits and restrictions have to be used to make sure government-provided long term care is available for the truly needy. One last thing to consider if you plan on trying to beat the look back period and give away assets at least 5 years prior to apply- ing for Medicaid: If your assets are in qualifed retirement funds such as a 410k, there could be signifcant tax consequences if you liquidate your fund earlier than you had intended. The taxes on an annual $30,000 disbursement from your account for ten years might be small if you are in a low tax bracket. However a lump sum disbursement of $300,000 might put you into a considerably higher tax bracket, perhaps in excess of 30%, making that a pretty expensive way to qualify for Medicaid. Summary We’ve learned there is a government program in place (Medicaid) to pay part of the cost of care for those who are unable to pay for their own care as long as that care is received in a nursing home. However we’ve also learned that signifcant concerns about relying