Follow the excellent advice from these folks!
OP-
My sister and I are currently going thru a similar experience with our mom. We're providing home help now so she can stay at home as long as practical. After that, we will likely start her in a private pay assisted living facility but, have investigated and begun taking steps to ensure she can access medicaid facilities and services if/when needed, as her assets will not last indefinitely. Based on our experience to date (still learning as we go), these are key steps:
1. Contact a good elder care attorney; it's well worth the $$$ as noted by an earlier poster. Martindale is a good on-line rating service.
2. Contact your state agency on aging. They are a tremendous resource to learn the ropes.
3. Enlist help from your siblings as appropriate.
4. Ensure you have your 'documents' in order (will, general POA, living will and/or medical POA, DNR order if appropriate, copies of all your parent's key docs, etc.). Do NOT delay this!
5. Don't listen to those who would try to guilt you into bankrupting yourself by not applying the law as structured to use available benefits (more below).
I did a quick Google search and it does look like a transfer can take place to a care-giver child to take the house out of the Medicaid calculation (at least in some states). I think it is entirely appropriate for OP to take advantage of such clauses and does not constitute dumping the liability on the tax payer any more than people sending their children to public schools takes unfair advantage of childless taxpayers.Medicaid..
I agree completely with donheff. There are many such 'transfers' which occur and, IMHO, we should be mindful of them and how we each (or those we care about) benefit from them, before criticizing others' choices. Just a few examples that come to mind:
A. Non-working spouses who collect 50% of their working spouse's SS, even though they've never paid into SS.
B. Parents who send their children to public schools, subsidized by childless taxpayers ( per the above post).
C. Older SS recipients who receive several times more in payouts than they ever contributed to SS.
D. State taxes which support state colleges and universities; same dynamic as "B" above.
E. The survivor benefit from SS.
F. The medical benefits used by the poor, in certain states, but, paid for by the taxes of others.
My personal tally of this short list is that I have paid for more of them than I will use but, gladly so because they make society a better place to live - which actually a benefit huh...