Annuities That Help You Qualify for Medicaid and Protect Your Assets

Long term health care costs remain high and growing. Because of this retirees with significant assets should plan for their potential Medicaid eligibility. A Medicaid qualified annuity can play a part in this planning when one spouse has to enter a nursing home leaving the other one at home. Medicaid picks up the long term care cost of elderly who are impoverished.  Long term care is very expensive and can eat up savings fast. The elder may not be able to leave a legacy to their children. Medicaid is a federal program but handled at the local level by your State. State restrictions and regulations on Medicaid vary so you always need to be aware of your own states’ Medicaid policies. Nevertheless, simply giving your assets away and then immediately applying for Medicaid is unacceptable under federal rules . To be safe you need to irrevocably transfer assets 60 months prior to applying. Anything shorter will prompt your state Medicaid office to attribute those assets to you and require you to pay your Medicaid monthly rate (state dependent) until all those assets have been exhausted. Only then will Medicaid foot the bill. If you still have substantial assets, you can [...]

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