Why Ohio Medicaid Eligibility Rules Adversely Impact Seniors
By Barry Zimmer on October 13th, 2016 in Medicaid
Medicaid eligibility Ohio in rules are very strict. Medicaid coverage is available only to people with limited incomes and with few resources. Unfortunately, this can be a big problem for seniors. Seniors are often the ones who need Medicaid the most because they have significant expenses that can only be covered by Medicaid or paid out-of-pocket. Yet, despite needing Medicaid, seniors typically have worked and saved their whole life and so they will not qualify as a result of resource limits.
If you want to make sure you can protect your assets and secure your legacy while still qualifying for Medicaid, you do have options. However, you need to act before you need nursing home care if you want to get the best protections for your property.
Zimmer Law Firm has helped many clients to get nursing home coverage through Medicaid while keeping their assets safe. We understand Ohio Medicaid eligibility rules and our legal team can help you to use the right tools to ensure you can get coverage when you need it. Give us a call today to find out more.
Why Do Ohio Medicaid Eligibility Rules Adversely Affect Seniors?
Ohio Medicaid eligibility rules are strict. There are limits on the monthly income that you can have coming in to get benefits. While this is not always a problem for seniors, there is another issue that can cause issues: Medicaid also has resource limits.
Medicaid limits you to having $2,000 in countable resources. If you have assets that are above this dollar amount, you are not supposed to qualify under Medicaid eligibility Ohio rules. You are supposed to sell assets and spend your money until you come down below this $2,000 resource limit.
The problem is, most seniors have more than $2,000 in countable resources. This is because seniors work their whole life, they acquire property, and they build a nest egg. If you have assets you own and money in the bank that you worked hard to save during your working years, you don’t want to be forced to spend down everything that you tried so hard to build during your lifetime.
Unfortunately, if you want to get Medicaid coverage and you have not made advanced plans to do so, you’ll have no choice but to spend money and sell the types of property that count as Medicaid resources. Your assets will no longer get to be your legacy.
How Can You Get Medicaid Coverage?
You do not have to lose out on all you’ve saved due to Ohio Medicaid eligibility rules. You have options. One of the options is to make a Medicaid plan in advance of the time nursing home care becomes necessary. A Medicaid plan involves structuring ownership of assets and making strategic decisions on assets so your assets do not count as resources for Medicaid eligibility purposes.
Medicaid wants to make sure you don’t just give away your property to try to get nursing care, so they look back five years to see what transactions, if any, you may have made. Medicaid planning does involve asset transfers, so this five year lookback period can be a problem. If you want to protect the maximum value of assets, you need to act and create your Medicaid plan at least five years before care is needed.
If you did not plan ahead like this, you may still have some options for protecting possessions. An attorney can help you to explore the different ways that you could try to protect as much of what you own as possible.
Contact a Medicaid Planning Lawyer for Help
You pay for Medicaid over the course of your working life when you pay taxes, and you deserve to be able to take advantage of its benefits when you are a senior and you need costly care. You should not lose out on a lifetime of savings or on the chance to leave money and property behind for the people and causes you care about. Let Zimmer Law Firm help to make sure that does not happen. Our legal team can help you to create a comprehensive Medicaid plan so you can get the coverage that you need, when you need it.
To find out more about the Medicaid eligibility Ohio rules and about how we can help you to get benefits, give us a call at 513.721.1513 today to speak with a member of our legal team. You can also download our estate planning checklist to learn more about how Medicaid planning fits in with your estate plan.