Tag: Medicaid

What your state lets you keep, effective 1/1/2024

This is a table that shows the minimum assets and income each state allows nursing-home residents and their spouses to keep.

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The Partnership for Long-Term Care

The idea of the Long-Term Care Partnership is to provide a way for the Medicaid program to work together with private long-term care insurance to help those people who are caught in the middle: they can’t afford to pay the cost of the care or even the cost of a long-term care insurance policy with unlimited benefits, yet their assets are too high to qualify for Medicaid to pay their long-term care expenses. Many middle-income workers and retirees find themselves in this position.

Participating insurance companies in the Partnership recognize the needs of these middle-income Americans by providing LTC insurance policies that have built-in consumer protection benefit standards, and participating states cooperate by allowing these policyholders to access Medicaid without spending down their assets almost to poverty level if the insurance benefits run out.

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Outside-of-the-Box Thinking About Long-Term Care Planning–One Size Does Not Fit All

As a shoe aficionado, I have observed that long-term care planning is quickly starting to resemble my closet of 100 pairs of shoes. 

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Phyllis Shelton LTCi Update

Phyllis Shelton discusses the latest on planning for long-term care with Tim Takacs and Barbara McGinnis on the Takacs-McGinnis Elder Law Hour

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What Does Long-Term Care Cost?

Planning for long-term care is best done with information gathering to make an informed decision. The “deer in headlights” approach doesn’t work.

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The Duckett Family

The story of my dear clients, Vernon and Helen Duckett.

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The Dramatic Difference LTC Insurance Makes to the Caregiver

Mary and Valerie have a lot in common as they are both caregivers. Mary’s Aunt Julia has long-term care insurance, whereas Valerie’s mother does not. Does it make a difference? Have you considered long-term care insurance to protect your family from the impact on Valerie’s life?

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Dave Ramsey helps so many people but he is way off on when to buy LTC coverage

If Dave could just grasp that telling people to wait until their 60s can not only price them out of the market, it can make them uninsurable so that no amount of money will buy it for them. Sadly, the 60 year olds who try and fail to get LTC insurance are very likely to lose the financial peace for which they turned to him to start with because long-term care is the most common reason people outlive their savings.

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Phyllis Shelton Says Wall St. Journal Didn’t Go Deep Enough on LTC Insurance Rate Increases

Phyllis Shelton expands on the July 1, 2013 Wall St. Journal article that discusses LTC insurance rate increases by showing how to evaluate a rate increase, how to save money by buying Long-Term Care Partnership plans, and how to view the impact of not planning for extended health care.

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What Does the Supreme Court’s Decision to Nullify DOMA Mean for Medicaid LTC Benefits?

Publicity around the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the Defense of Marriage Act on June 26, 2013 has centered around the ability to file joint tax returns and collect survivor social security benefits. My first reaction was “What about the ability to take advantage of the spousal impoverishment benefits under Medicaid?”

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