General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: You better understand that Medicaid may take all of your inheritance [View all]DeminPennswoods
(15,265 posts)IIRC, around half of all Medicaid expenditures pay for nursing home care. The way Medicare works for nursing home care is that if you have less than x$s of assets, Medicare will pay for the cost of nursing home care. People with savings over that amount or significant savings will often put them in irrevocable trusts that are outside of what Medicaid counts as an asset. That way to Medicaid, the person in nursing home care appears destitute and Medicaid picks up the cost of care. Homes can also be put into irrevocable trusts or can be sold to relatives for a nominal cost, say $1.00.
Once a person is qualified for Medicaid, whatever pension(s), annunities and/or social security income they receive is redirected to the nursing home with Medicaid paying whatever their reimbursement ceiling is.
Medicaid does not consider savings in IRAs or other qualified pension savings as assets. In order to qualify for Medicaid, the person applying has to spend at least 1/2 their remaining assets before Medicaid kicks in. You're probably heard this as "spend down".
I'm not a lawyer or estate planner, but I had the experience of having power of attorney for a relative who spent their last few months in a nursing home and covered by Medicaid.