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My 92 year old mother is no longer able to stay alone while I work. I will need to quit my job and it will be 8 or 9 months before I qualify for Medicare and I will have no health insurance at this time. Is there a way or plan to get my health insurance covered while caring for my Mother?

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It is 3 nights meaning before midnight that you need to be admitted as an inpatient for medicare benefits to kick in and spending all day in ER and admitted to the hospital as inpatient at 1201 (after midnight does not count as a night). We have to be more aware of our health care for ourselves and our parents. Pennyante
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Earlier this year I was in the hospital for an infection, was placed in the "observation unit", was there 2 nights 3 days, and my Medicare paid, with secondary insurance picking up the rest.

Now with "Observation", the doctor cannot write a script for Rehab where Medicare would pay the required number of days. That would be self-paid. One would have needed to be placed in house in the hospital for 3 days to qualify for Rehab.
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From Pennyante--thank you for the update on Obama care. Mom can't afford a lot but she took care of her physical and mentally disable daughter for over 50 years at home. She wants and needs to be at home and the little money she has would be used up in a couple of months with outside home care or nursing home care. I work in health care and know some of the situations. Health care givers beware, though admitted to a hospital as an inpatient the hospital can change their minds and reverse to the decision to be an observation patient only. this even though my Mom had a 3 night stay in the hospital she was unable to receive Medicare benefits due the observation status. I didn't realize that hospital could do this. So much for taking care of our elderly who has taught us so much and raised us to be law abiding caring individuals, when others such as our prisoners get better health care than our elderly who worked there whole lives as honest upright citizens. My Mom was born in England and her sister who is in her eighties get doctors coming to her home. Perhaps socialize medicine is better. Thanks for all your support
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Thank you, I will do rhat. Our situation is different, as mu husband is on a Industrial Insurance pension, from an on the job injury to his back, but in the interim time, my FIL who lives with us, has declined to the point of not being able to be alone, and needing every assistance. So there may be some help to him, probably not, but its always good to know these things!
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Yes, there is a list of exemptions. Google obamacare health insurance exemptions. There is a list of about seven qualifiers.
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Thank you Glad, I wasn't aware about the Obama care caregivers health insurance exemption! And why Bloddy .not give Caregivers, at least some Basic Health Insurance, if they are caring for a Parent, in the home, and not able to work, or afford Health insurance? It makes No Sense at all! This burns my britches! My husband spends over 600 per month for insurance in Washington state, yet his Dad whom he cares for has a Zero deductible insurance plan? Go figure!
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@freqflyer the OP says they are within a year of being Medicare eligible which also means that they are going to be eligible for social security benefits (albeit with the lower payout) so I think that the earnings lost is less than someone who still has 20+ years to work. I was looking into the situation with my grandma that I posted about and found that Indiana has a program similar to the program in NY that I work under. I have to look at it more once my brain isn't so fried but to the OP, you can look into the possibility of your state program. In NY, it's called cdpap. Most states have something like this bc it's cheaper than them paying for a NH and the look back is only 30 days in most states. The only problems you might run into are
1- she may have a spend down but a pooled trust can fix this
2- if you are the POA, you can't be paid so you might have to get a lawyer or someone trustworthy to be POA
3- if you live with her, they will try to recover the funds via the house but there is a hardship waiver but I haven't researched the qualifications to see how likely approval is.
But if you find out that she's able to be approved you have the option of working for her X amount of hours and hiring other aides for the other hours or you could hire aides for all the hours approved for and keep your job. I'm not sure how much care she requires but if it's 24 hours and they don't allow OT, it would mean 4 aides and 8 hours hanging but you can get as many aides to cover the hours, they don't all have to be 40 hours. Idk what your current salary is but I get $12.15/hour for the first 40 and time and a half for 51/hrs. I'm a live in and my agency allows ot but only pays me 13 hours a day. The 40 hour wage isn't the best but the OT helps. Most agencies don't allow OT so ymmv. NY is a more liberal state so you might have a lower wage depending on where you live. Anyway, the job offers insurance if that helps. MSG me if you want any info but if you research Medicaid in home care and look for the info about clients hiring their own help you should find something.
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Penny, here are some things to think about if one is trying to decide whether to quit work to care for an aging parent.... on average if a working person quits work he/she will lose over the years between $285,000 and $325,000 which includes not only loss of salary over those years...

it also includes the net worth loss of the health insurance coverage [which you know is an issue].... loss of money being put into Social Security/Medicare..... loss of other benefits such as matching 401(k).... profit sharing.... workman's comp insurance.... company sponsored life insurance.... vacation pay, sick pay.... tuition assistance, etc. [source: in part Reuters 5/30/12]

If you do decide to leave work, get some type of hospitalization insurance, otherwise if you have a medical event, it would wipe out your savings.

My late Mom lived to be 98, and I refused to quit work to take care of my parents because my parent could afford to hire caregivers and cleaning help, they just didn't want to spend the money. If your Mom has funds, have her hire caregivers, or see if she would want to move to Assisted Living... there are some very lovely places that are like hotels with restaurant style dining areas. They are expensive, but less expensive then around the clock caregivers at home. Plus Mom would be around other ladies her own age. My Dad is now in Assisted Living and he really likes the place.
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If you haven't reached the maximum Medicaid expansion income limit, you can still sign up as a life changing event. Idk where you live but the average max income is around 17k but if you have any student loan interest, up to $2500 is deducted from the countable income and if you contributed to a traditional Ira, that's also excluded. There's other deductions like some moving expenses, alimony, etc. If you're still over the Medicaid expansion limit, but still didn't make a lot of money you might still get a low cost share plan for $20-50 a month with no deductible and lower copay. For example, in New York, a single person making less than 24k agi iirc (after deducting exemptions) can get the essential plan for $20 month. It's the silver plan, my friend has it. I think pcp is $15, specialists $20, scripts $6, $20-50 for tests and $50-100 for er and hospital stay.
If you made a ton of money already, it might be better to look for a low cost clinic and ride out the year but when the marketplace opens up in October you would be approved for Medicaid for 2017 until Medicare kicked in. You might be able to then get regular Medicaid as your secondary but that's a different Medicaid and would depend on your assets whereas Medicaid expansion is income based.
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Agree, do not quit your job! Resources for caregivers do not exist. Help for caregivers is limited to what they can do to find resouces for the one thsy care for. However, there is somegood news that caregivers are exempt from having health insurance when caring for a elderly parent. So, no Obama penalties. Shouldn't the government make it a benefit for caregivers? Instead of exempting them, provide insurance for the. Keep caregivers healthy so they can continue ti provide cheap or free care? Can mom afford to pay you?
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Don't quit your job. It's a very bad idea to give up your livelihood to care for a parent. What are your mom's resources to pay for care?
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