we really need to push for govt assistance to assisted living facilities. in california, the many people who are truly wealthy here just hate having to pay taxes and now everything is going to hell right before their eyes. medi-cal (the medicaid system in CA) allows only $2000 and no assets (there are specifics that i won't get into here). the point is, the requirement is that one be indigent. the $2000 amount hasn't changed in years when everything else has. assisted living facilities are all private pay in CA. they figure most careful, middle class people have $100,000 saved. they figure that is gone in two years of assisted living, the average stay. long term care insurance is expensive and not easily attainable. vets benefits only give so much and take months and months to go through. after that it's board and care or nursing home. save your money and advocate for seniors now. these are the realities.
For some reason your website is not available to me. I may never need medicaid. I play Ping Pong 3-4 times a week. Exercise 5 hours a week. Not that easy with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am more interested in starting a class action suit against GM.I sent an e-mail to our US Senator from Florida and received what appeared to be a standard form letter that did not even come close to answering my question. Either the Senator is quite dense or he never read my e-mail.
Some areas of the country have programs to help pay for in home care or adult daycare. You might want to seek help from an eldercare attorney to learn about paying for a nursing home, if your area doesn't have assistance for you or your loved one to stay at home or if that's not the right option for you
First, I am not endorsing the system, rather I am a critic of it. I am just telling you how the system works. But I think you misunderstood Medicaid: MEDICAID is what the government pays to nursing homes when you run out of money. MEDICARE is what the government pays to doctors, hospitals and nursing home...for a limited time (usually 3 months). Therefore, people that need long-term or permanent nursing home stays, start paying out of pocket after their MEDICARE runs out. Then when the nursing home has sucked up all of your savings, THEN and only then does MEDICAID kick in to keep you in the nursing home.
Thats why many people are going to nursing homes instead of the much nicer and less expensive assisted livings. Because when they run out of money (or if they didn't have it in the first place), they can stay in the nursing home for life with MEDICAID. However, assisted living is private pay only, and when you run out of money there, you have to leave.
Like i said this is a little complicated.
to repeat: the government is starting to wake up. They realize that they are spending billions in MEDICAID dollars to keep people in nursing homes that have run out of money (and that don't even need a nursing home, they just can't live independently anymore). So the government is experimenting with paying MEDICAID dollars to keep people in assisted living, and save money. But you have to do research for your State, I only know how California does it.
P.S. Get to know the difference between Medicaid and Medicare, it will help.
At age 81 it certainly is about a person's life savings being swallowed up by Medicaid. General Motors received billions in bailout money and took away our Long Term care insurance without any recourse to keeping the policy in force.
From my understanding of Medicaid a person in a nursing home covered by Medicaid will cost on average $6000.00 per month. At that rate my life savings would be wiped out in the blink of an eye.
From the way you worded your question I presume money is a big issue? Here's the real deal. Until recently, that's all there was. If you could not stay at home and you could not afford private duty care or pay privately for assisted living, you had to move to a nursing home.
Even if you had most of your faculties and only needed help with a few things, like bathing, or escorts to meal, your only option was skilled nursing care. I talk about it in my website "caregiverrelief.com"
Finally, people in Washington heard the complaints - that it was a waste of taxpayer money to pay for a nursing home, when an assisted living community was much cheaper. So now the government is doing pilot programs and allowing Medicaid to pay for assisted living. So, depending on what State you live in, go talk to the social security offices or do some research.
However, there was, and is one more option. There are assisted living living communities that take SSI as full payment. But again you have to research it. But please come to my website if you wish to ask me a specific question: caregiverrelief.com.
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medi-cal (the medicaid system in CA) allows only $2000 and no assets (there are specifics that i won't get into here). the point is, the requirement is that one be indigent. the $2000 amount hasn't changed in years when everything else has.
assisted living facilities are all private pay in CA. they figure most careful, middle class people have $100,000 saved. they figure that is gone in two years of assisted living, the average stay. long term care insurance is expensive and not easily attainable. vets benefits only give so much and take months and months to go through. after that it's board and care or nursing home. save your money and advocate for seniors now.
these are the realities.
For some reason your website is not available to me.
I may never need medicaid. I play Ping Pong 3-4 times a week. Exercise 5 hours a week. Not that easy with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am more interested in starting a class action suit against GM.I sent an e-mail to our US Senator from Florida and received what appeared to be a standard form letter that did not even come close to answering my question. Either the Senator is quite dense or he never read my e-mail.
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You might want to seek help from an eldercare attorney to learn about paying for a nursing home, if your area doesn't have assistance for you or your loved one to stay at home or if that's not the right option for you
But I think you misunderstood Medicaid: MEDICAID is what the government pays to nursing homes when you run out of money. MEDICARE is what the government pays to doctors, hospitals and nursing home...for a limited time (usually 3 months). Therefore, people that need long-term or permanent nursing home stays, start paying out of pocket after their MEDICARE runs out. Then when the nursing home has sucked up all of your savings, THEN and only then does MEDICAID kick in to keep you in the nursing home.
Thats why many people are going to nursing homes instead of the much nicer and less expensive assisted livings. Because when they run out of money (or if they didn't have it in the first place), they can stay in the nursing home for life with MEDICAID. However, assisted living is private pay only, and when you run out of money there, you have to leave.
Like i said this is a little complicated.
to repeat: the government is starting to wake up. They realize that they are spending billions in MEDICAID dollars to keep people in nursing homes that have run out of money (and that don't even need a nursing home, they just can't live independently anymore). So the government is experimenting with paying MEDICAID dollars to keep people in assisted living, and save money.
But you have to do research for your State, I only know how California does it.
P.S. Get to know the difference between Medicaid and Medicare, it will help.
Best of luck, Donahue
At age 81 it certainly is about a person's life savings being swallowed up by Medicaid. General Motors received billions in bailout money and took away our Long Term care insurance without any recourse to keeping the policy in force.
Even if you had most of your faculties and only needed help with a few things, like bathing, or escorts to meal, your only option was skilled nursing care. I talk about it in my website "caregiverrelief.com"
Finally, people in Washington heard the complaints - that it was a waste of taxpayer money to pay for a nursing home, when an assisted living community was much cheaper. So now the government is doing pilot programs and allowing Medicaid to pay for assisted living. So, depending on what State you live in, go talk to the social security offices or do some research.
However, there was, and is one more option. There are assisted living living communities that take SSI as full payment. But again you have to research it. But please come to my website if you wish to ask me a specific question: caregiverrelief.com.
Good luck, Donahue Vanderhider
Gerontologist