Can anyone help me by finding the law that says that if one

[Horse with no Name]

spouse goes into the nursing home, the state can take their house?

THanks.

[efhmc]

1. No, you must render your spouse insolvent so their portion of your

house and other assets are not garnished for expenses. It will be necessary to get your assets out of both names as community property. You need an attorney that can help you with this.

[NAO]

2. I think it's part of Medicare..."Long Term Care" provision

I learned about it when my mother had to go in a nursing home. She had purchased long term care insurance (a very important thing for everyone with spouse or kids to do) so it did not come up.

However, we did look into what would happen if her long term care insurance benefits were exhausted before she passed away. The state will put someone in a nursing home, but first they have to put themselves their on self-pay, and exhaust all their money, then liquidate all their assets (house too). They also investigate if the person has given away more than a few thousand dollars to anyone in the past 5 years...that's to prevent people from giving their savings and property titles to children, then making the state pick up the tab.

I think the programs are called "(your state's initial) LTCS" eg, for Arizona it is "ALTCS" for Arizona Long Term Care Services.