Colorado Medicaid Planning
Medicaid and Aid and Attendance Planning
A great fear of many Americans is ending up in a nursing home and being a financial burden on their children or other relatives. And a natural fear of children is the loss of parent estate due to the cost of nursing home.
There are government programs available to assist in paying for nursing home care, and Medicaid is one of them. If you qualify, Medicaid may pay for the entire nursing home bill.
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that provides health coverage or nursing home coverage to eligible people, including children, pregnant women, parents of eligible children, people with disabilities and elderly needing nursing home care, and was created to help people who fall into one of these eligibility categories pay for some or all of their medical bills. One kind of Medicaid program is the Medicaid nursing home coverage which pays all of the costs of nursing homes for those who are eligible. Each state operates its own program, and as a result, the eligibility rules differ significantly from state to state, although all states are supposed to follow the same basic federal statute and rules. Colorado in particular is a difficult state and tends to ignore planning options available under the federal statute
Veterans benefit planning, otherwise known as the Aid and Attendance benefit, involves obtaining a monthly income benefit in the event you are unable to care for yourself. This benefit is tax free and can help in paying for assisted living or nursing home costs. To qualify, you must generally be unable to care for yourself, be a veteran of the armed services during a wartime (you don’t have to have actually been in combat situation, however) and your asset levels must be below certain levels, depending on your age, marital status and other factors. Also, your recurring medical expense must be greater than your recurring medical expense, including the cost of assisted living or nursing home care.
