Many Americans, including baby boomers too young for Medicare and disabled adults of any age, have been unable to obtain private health coverage at any price because of a pre-existing health condition. As part of the roll-out of the new health reform law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the [...]
In my last post, I discussed the Medicaid rules regarding transfer of assets and the penalties associated with certain transfers. There are however, certain exceptions to the transfer rules. Transferring assets to certain recipients will not trigger a period of Medicaid ineligibiltiy. These exempt recipients include the following: A spouse (or a transfer to anyone else [...]
Many people think that estate plans are for someone else, not them. They may rationalize that they are too young or don’t have enough money to reap the tax benefits of a plan. But as the following list makes clear, estate planning is for everyone, regardless of age or net worth. 1. Loss of capacity. [...]
One of Medicaid’s (aka MassHealth in Massachusetts) eligibility rules is the penalty for transferring assets. Congress does not want you to move into a Massachusetts nursing home on Monday, give all your money to your children (or whomever) on Tuesday, and qualify for Medicaid on Wednesday. So it has imposed a penalty on people who transfer [...]
The Medicaid law provides special protections for the spouse of a nursing home resident to make sure she has the minimum support needed to continue to live in the community. The so-called “spousal protections” work this way: if the Medicaid applicant is living in Massachusetts and is married, the countable assets of both the community [...]
