Things You Can Own to Qualify for Medicaid and Protect Your Life Savings
Now you might be thinking, “Who can qualify for Medicaid with such a low limit of $8,000 for what you can own?” Here’s the good news. Medicaid does not count everything that you own to determine if your resources are equal to or below the $8,000 limit. Medicaid does not count 10 types of property when it comes to determining if you qualify. Medicaid calls those 10 types of property “exempt resources.” The 10 exempt resources that Medicaid does not count when determining the total value of what you own is equal to or below the $8,000 limit, are the following:
(1) Value of Your Home—the value of your home if you intend to return to it.
(2) Household goods and personal effects—like furniture, clothing, jewelry, items of personal care, recreational equipment, musical instruments, and hobby items.
(3) One Car.
(4) Revocable Burial Reserve up to $1,500—Otherwise known as putting money down for prepaid funeral services that you can later change your mind and take back.
(5) Burial Spaces—for you and your immediate family.
(6) Irrevocable Burial Reserve—otherwise known as prepaid burial services that once paid for you can’t get your money back.
(7) Life Insurance Policies—with the cash value up to $1500 for each insured person.
(8) Property Essential to Self-support—including real estate or personal property that you use to make a living like a building for a bakery and its equipment or a carpenter’s tools used in his business. If you have a lot of land that your house sits on and you have a lot of equipment to maintain it, the value of that equipment is not counted.
(9) Property Excluded by Federal Statute—your lawyer can take a look at the section to see if any of your property is listed in that category so you don’t count that too.
(10) Spouse’s Retirement Account—Value of retirement account of Spouse living in the marital home not counted.
Therefore, an unmarried person, who needs nursing home care, trying to qualify for Medicaid, could have a $450,000 house, a $50,000 car, and still qualify for Medicaid because the value of your home and car are exempt resources, and not counted, when determining if what you own is equal to or below the Medicaid $8,000 limit. Include the value of the other exempt property too. Whatever the sum total adds up to, the total amount won’t be considered when determining if you qualify for Medicaid.
Remember the combined resource limit for a married couple is $128,900, $8,000 for the spouse living in the nursing home and a maximum of $120,900 for the spouse living in the marital home. Add the $450,000 house, the $50,000 car, and the value of your Spouse’s retirement account, even if it’s worth $350,000. Include the value of the other exempt property too. Whatever the sum total adds up to, the total amount won’t be considered when determining if you qualify for Medicaid.
Want Peace of Mind and a Complete Evaluation of Your Case?
Call (610) 347-5035 NOW or Click HERE to Schedule a Consultation with Chester County Pennsylvania Nursing Home & Elder Law Attorney, Michaelangelo L. Dippolito. Click HERE to see the attorney’s background.
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Get this FREE Book and Consumer Protection Guide, Paying for Nursing Home Care in Pennsylvania, A Consumer Protection Guide on What You Need to Know to Protect Your Legal Rights. Here’s Some of What’s in the FREE Book and Consumer Protection Guide:
- What’s it Cost & Who’s Gonna Pay?
- 10 Moves You Can Make to Qualify for Medicaid & Protect Your Life Savings
- Critical 5 Step Process to Your Medicaid Claim for Nursing Home Care
- What You Need to Know About Lawyer Fees
- Arming Yourself with Knowledge is the First Step to a New Beginning
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Chester County Pennsylvania Nursing Home & Elder Law Attorney with ThePeoplesLawFirm.com
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