Burlington Medicaid lawyers can provide help with the creation of a Medicaid plan. Many people do not realize how important it is to make a Medicaid plan until it is too late. If you have not been proactive in making sure you can get Medicaid to cover you, you could experience substantial financial loss.
The reality is, a substantial number of people do need to make a Medicaid plan, and to find out if you are one of them, you should reach out to Unsworth LaPlante, PLLC today. Our Burlington Medicaid lawyers can evaluate your situation, discuss the purpose of Medicaid planning, and help you to decide if making a plan is right for you.
You should give us a call today to talk with a compassionate and knowledgeable member of our legal team and don’t want too long until it becomes too late for you to make your plan and protect your assets.
Why Do So Many People Need to Make a Medicaid Plan?
Making a Medicaid plan is very important for many people for a few key reasons. First and foremost, the goal of making a Medicaid plan is so you can afford the costs of nursing home care or long-term care at home. There is a very significant chance that you will end up needing this type of care if you live into your old age. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal indicates, once you have reached age 65, you have about a 40 percent chance of needing to go into a nursing home sometime during your life and a 20 percent chance of needing five years or more care in a nursing home. Because the chances of needing nursing home care are so high, it is important to plan for how to pay for this care.
When you look into your options for paying for nursing home care, you will find few actual practical solutions available. Medicare only pays for skilled nursing care; it pays nothing at all for custodial care which is the kind of care the vast majority of people require when they move to a nursing home. Custodial care is basic routine care or help with activities of daily living, like getting dressed. If you need this kind of care, it’s not optional — you have to get it, even though Medicare and private insurance will not cover it.
Since Medicare and private health insurance won’t cover long-term care, you may decide to look into purchasing a special long-term care insurance policy. Unfortunately, when you research policies, you will probably find that these policies are prohibitively expensive — especially as you get older. You may also discover that the policies provide insufficient coverage because of daily spending limits or other limitations that result in the policies failing to provide you with adequate coverage.
Because most options to cover the costs of long-term care are inadequate, your only option may be to pay out of pocket— unless you are able to qualify for Medicaid. Since Medicaid is means-tested, however, you may not qualify because you have probably built up a nest egg over the course of your life. Having too many assets to qualify for Medicaid could force you to impoverish yourself until you are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid to pay for your nursing home care.
You want to avoid having to spend your hard-earned wealth, and that’s why it’s so important to make a Medicaid plan. And, because Medicaid will look back five years from the time you apply for coverage in order to determine if you are eligible for benefits and will temporarily disqualify you if you gave away or transferred assets, you want to make this Medicaid plan in advance of the time you need care.
Getting Help from Burlington Medicaid Lawyers
Burlington Medicaid lawyers can provide the help you need to create a comprehensive Medicaid plan and protect your wealth. You have worked too hard to build up a nest egg not to be able to leave a legacy for your loved ones. Our firm will provide assistance in making a Medicaid plan whether you are acting well in advance of the time that you need care or whether you need help with crisis planning because your move to a nursing home is imminent.
To find out more about the ways in which Unsworth LaPlante, PLLC can help you with the Medicaid planning process, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (802) 879-7133 or contact us online today to get your plans underway. Don’t wait until it becomes too late for you to protect your wealth — give us a call now.
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