Decisions and the 5 year lookback

[gerntz]

Something that can really help preserve the assets is for the nursing home person not Medicaid eligible to turnover all of their assets to a high tax bracket child regardless of the look back period. The nursing home person thus has no income outside SS. That child then pays all the nursing home person's medical costs - which includes the nursing home fees - and if those medical costs exceed the SS income such that the child can claim the nursing home parent as a dependent, then all those medical costs are a deduction for the child and thus this reduces the costs to the combined parent & child by 30/40/50%. We did this back in the .com bubble period for my mother-in-law & with the huge stock market rise, we were able to basically tread water wtih her assets for five years. Low LTCG rates at the time helped also.

 

[mathjak107]

of course a divorce or accident by the kids can put all those assets at risk .

 

[gerntz]

Life is nothing but risks. Each of us have to decide how to manage them.

 

[athena53]

Nothing is certain, but given that DH has health issues and he's 15 years older than I am, it's most likely he'll go first and that he won't linger for years in a nursing home, so that simplifies my decision-making if I focus on the most likely case. Remarriage is out of the question even if I find some good male companionship, unless he's fully able to fund his own LTC.

My concern is that, as more and more baby boomers age, the states are going to be overwhelmed with oldsters whose LTC plan was "spend down so Medicaid pays". My prediction is that care for these people will be cut to bare sustenance. No Wi-Fi, exercise classes, libraries, trips to museums, wine at dinner, etc. That's not what I want for my remaining years- even if I need assisted living I want to use my mind and my body to the extent they're still working. The plan is that when I'm 75, I move into something at the level of the Erickson communities near Des Moines, where DS lives. I hope they come to visit. I should be able to swing that, especially after selling the house.

And I suspect Erickson and their ilk don't take Medicaid. My plan to avoid relying on Medicaid is more selfishness rather than some other, nobler motivation.