Valentine’s Day is here again. If you’re like me, you have been looking high and low for what to get your spouse or loved one for Valentine’s Day that tells them how much you care about them.
I want to add this to your thoughts this Valentine’s Day: Often the best thing we can do for a spouse is proper long-term care Medicaid planning.
Consider it the last, best Valentine’s Day gift ever!
We look out for and care for our partners throughout life, but many people neglect planning for the day when they might be incapacitated and need long-term care.
The lack of planning can be disastrous to a spouse.
Medicaid planning is not about taking advantage of the system or helping the super-rich preserve inheritances. At the heart of it, Medicaid Planning is about helping people — who are in crisis or might face a crisis — provide for their loved ones.
The reason I’m so passionate about Medicaid planning is that without it, often a spouse will enter a nursing home and drain most of the family resources … leaving the healthy spouse to go broke. Most community spouses do not adequately understand the Medicaid spenddown. That lack of knowledge causes them to spend far more money on their spouse’s care than the law requires.
There is a human side of Medicaid planning. Leaving a loved one to exhaust all retirement resources for long-term care is not how we want to treat a spouse, but the lack of planning can put them in a situation that makes them feel like all of their financial security is at stake. This can lead to sleepless nights and anxiety that nobody would wish on their Valentine.
Many people don’t even know that Medicaid Planners exist until they reach a crisis in care. The role of the Medicaid planner is to help guide the healthy spouse through one of the most complex government benefits systems ever imagined and make sure that they don’t spend one dollar more than the law requires. The Spousal Impoverishment rules are there to help protect the community spouse, but the average person gets a headache just trying to understand the basics of how the system works let alone the planning opportunities available to them.
“Often the best thing we can do for a spouse is proper long-term care Medicaid planning.”
The work necessary to attain Medicaid eligibility when a spouse has immediate long-term care is known as crisis planning. But crisis planning is only half of the equation. While people are still healthy enough to explore their options, planning ahead for long-term care Medicaid can give both spouses the peace of mind that their loved one will be cared for if they all of a sudden start running up an $8,000-a-month nursing home bill.
Planning ahead for long-term care Medicaid says “I LOVE YOU” in a whole new way and makes sure when a healthcare crisis strikes, their Valentine won’t be left in financial crisis, too.
Are you prepared for a health care crisis or are you leaving your loved one in the lurch? Would you like to have a Certified Medicaid Planner™ review your circumstances and help you develop a plan to protect your loved ones? Our planners can help. To request a free initial consultation with a Certified Medicaid Planner™, click here.
