Why Parents of Disabled Children Need a Medicaid Plan
By Barry Zimmer on January 25th, 2018 in Medicaid
Parents of disabled children should work with Cincinnati Medicaid attorneys to find out about how to protect their disabled child’s benefits. When parents have a child who is disabled, parents typically want to ensure that their child is financially supported even after the parents pass away and are not able to provide for the child any longer. However, in their efforts to provide financial support for their kids, it is important that parents not put a child’s means-tested government benefits at risk.
Zimmer Law Firm can work closely with parents to ensure that their disabled children are able to inherit money and property that can be used for their financial support while still remaining eligible for Medicaid. Give us a call today to learn more about how our Cincinnati Medicaid attorneys can assist you with the creation of a Medicaid plan that will allow your child’s benefits to continue.
Why Parents of Disabled Children Should Make a Medicaid Plan
If you are the parent of a disabled child, your child may not be able to work because of his or her disabling condition. When your child is no longer covered by your family health insurance, your child’s coverage may come through Medicaid because Medicaid is an affordable solution that provides low-cost care for people with disabling conditions. Your child can receive Medicaid throughout the course of his life to pay for essential healthcare services. If your child cannot work, your child may also receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
Both SSI and Medicaid benefits are means-tested, which means they are only available to people with low incomes and with limited financial resources. Your child may qualify based on income and based on his or her own personal resources. However, you may not want your child to be left living on Social Security alone after you pass away and cannot provide for your child any longer. You will likely want to leave an inheritance to your child, which could include transferring money and property.
The money and the property you transfer to your child could result in your disabled child owning too many assets to remain eligible for Medicaid or to remain eligible for Supplemental Security Income. This could mean that your child inherits money or property and immediately loses medical coverage. If your disabled child requires a lot of care, or is in an institutional care setting such as a nursing home that is paid for by Medicaid, the loss of benefits could be a major problem.
Because your child would continue to need care but would no longer have insurance coverage to pay for it, paying out of pocket could become necessary. The entire inheritance left to your child could be used to pay for the costs of care — and the money could be spent very quickly because medical care is often very expensive.
You don’t want an inheritance that you provide to enhance your child’s quality of life to be used instead to pay for medical care that was supposed to be covered by Medicaid. To make certain that this does not occur, you need to structure an inheritance in such a way that you are able to provide money for your child but protect your child’s access to Medicaid coverage. In other words, you need to make a Medicaid plan.
A Medicaid planning attorney at Zimmer Law Firm can help you to create a plan, which will often include the creation of a special needs trust. You should reach out to an experienced attorney as soon as possible to get your plans in place because you do not know when something could happen to you and your child’s benefits could be put at risk by an inheritance.
Getting Help from Cincinnati Medicaid Planning Attorneys
Cincinnati Medicaid planning attorneys at Zimmer Law Firm will work with parents to determine if they need to create a Medicaid plan and will help parents to take smart steps to put their plans in place. We can help parents in all different situations to make use of the right legal tools to protect their children and to ensure continued access to benefits.
To find out more about how our firm can provide assistance with the Medicaid planning process, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 513.721.1513 if you are ready to get personalized help with the Medicaid planning process.