Can my friend ever qualify for a Medicaid nursing home bed with this asset scenario?

I strongle advise your friend and his wife to spend the money for an Eldercare Attorney. First, they seem to have plenty of assets to warrant the expense. Second, the expense is an allowable Medicaid spend down expense so they would benefit from the expert advice that is more credible that a possible errored answer on a forum. It varies from State to State, so if a post is accurate for the respective state it may not be for yours.

Why do you think that is a good thing to do? This couple can afford to pay for their own care in a nice place with a pleasant lifestyle. Scheming to defraud Medicaid is not right. Don’t even involve yourself in this scam.

Every state is different, they need to do a martial asset split. If he is going to be going into a nursing home and she is staying out in the community she will need to get x amount to live off of.

Why not talk to a Medicaid caseworker. From what I see though the rental property and second house will be the problem. The wife should see an Elder Lawyer about getting assets split. His split going to his care and then apply for Medicaid when its gone. Once on Medicaid wife gets 1 home, 1 car and enough of the monthly income to live on.

But again, rental property and xtra property can be sold for his care.

First off, most states' Medicaid only pays for LTC, which is assessed as medically necessary by a doctor or with agreement with a facility.

Second, one has to also qualify financially.

Third, Medicaid beds are usually shared rooms.

Your friends should create a trust or talk to a Medicaid Planner for their state about a Miller Trust, but if they've got the funds why not pay for a great facility? They're not all ghastly expensive. My MIL is in an excellent faith-based LTC facility that's run by the second-largest organization in the nation (Presbyterian Homes, circa 1955). It's more affordable than for-profit facilities.

If they can afford to pay for GOOD QUALITY Memory Care why on earth would they opt Medicaid?
As a Taxpayer I am a bit upset that someone would want me to help pay for their care when they can afford it.
I used my money, my husbands money to pay for his care. yeah, I could have divorced him, I could have tried to get him on Medicaid. But I didn't

Maybe the best option would be to let your friends figure this out.
Let them pay an Elder Care Attorney. Not to figure out how they can get on Medicaid but to protect the assets that they do have, so that she can access them when and how she needs to.
And to make sure all the paperwork is in place so that she can make decisions for him when the time comes. End of Life decisions, and what he does and does not want.
And most important how to protect HIM if anything ever happens to her. how will he be cared for. There are "Special Needs Trusts" that can be set up for him if something happens to her.

Two homes is no small chunk of change. One house will need to be sold when private pay is needed. Actually they DO need a good lawyer while they have these assets to save them a bundle. What do you mean you do not want to spend $1000? This confuses me. Actually they need to gather all of their info on their assets as homework. For legal services expect 2 k for wills and POA documents and 8 k to set up a trust while they can still do this. Each state is different. A good lawyer can save them more than my estimates I just wrote here

Why would your friend WANT a Medicaid bed with a roommate when he has plenty of assets to privately pay for much better care in a nice Memory Care Assisted Living suite ???? Isn't that the whole purpose of having money to begin with??

We're not here to direct your friend on how to scam the government into paying for care he doesn't qualify for, or how to hide his assets. Sorry.