You should be aware of the fact that most people who are fortunate enough to celebrate their 65th birthdays are going to need help with their day-to-day needs at some point in time.
This does not always mean that nursing home care will be necessary, but the United States Department of Health and Human Services tells us that you have a 40% chance of residing in a nursing home someday if you live to be 65.
So it is indeed very possible that each of us will spend some time in a nursing home eventually. Nursing home care is extremely expensive, with the average cost for a private room in America reaching over $90,000 in 2012.
Because of the enormity of these expenses many people wind up relying on Medicaid to pay for nursing home care. There are certain limits that you must stay within to qualify for the program, and we would like to look at a couple of changes in these dollar limits that have been implemented for 2013.
The value of your home does not count when your assets are being tallied to determine whether or not you’re eligible for Medicaid. The caveat is that there is an upper equity limit.
This year the equity limit has been raised to $536,000, and each individual state has the option of raising it to as high as $802,000.
The other change we would like to highlight involves the limit on financial resources that the healthy or community spouse may keep when his or her spouse is institutionalized.
This limit has been upped to a maximum of $115,920 in 2013, but each state can set its own limit. There is however a minimum allowable amount of $23,184 that has been implemented for this year.
If you would like to learn more about program eligibility click this link to access our free report: South Carolina Medicaid Planning
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