Why you should let Medicaid pay for your nursing home in Florida

Attorney Tom Olsen: I'm going to read the text, Robert, then you and I can answer it. It says, "If you have the money to pay for your care in a skilled nursing facility, nursing home, why don't you? Isn't that what it's for? Why should other taxpayer pay for your nursing home when you could pay for it yourself?" Robert, that's a common question. Tell us what you think.

Attorney Robert Hidock: It is a very common question. First, I'm not sure if the taxpayer knows how much that cost of care is, so let's just put that out there. If you're in a skilled nursing facility, you're looking at $10,000 to $12,000 a month. That's a lot of money. Primarily, Tom, me, you, most of our listeners here, have paid for Medicaid. You do it in two different ways. Every time you buy something in the state of Florida you pay sales tax, and that goes to Medicaid. Then when you pay your federal income taxes, part of that income tax goes to pay for Medicaid. All of us have paid into that system. That's one of the ways I look at it.

Then when we're looking at it, I always like to make people feel better because a lot of people think, "Oh, we need to spend this." Well, let's say, Tom, you have $300,000, and your goal though is to protect the estate plan that somebody created with you. If we're going to go with, "Oh, I have money. I'm going to pay," that's great. But if you spend - if you don't die and you live past your $300,000 - $10,000 or $12,000 a month, if you live three years that money is gone.

Do you have someone else that can afford to pay that $10,000 or $12,000 a month? If not, you're going on Medicaid. If Medicaid is the end result, let's protect those assets while we can and preserve the estate plan. I know I would much rather give my assets to my loved ones as opposed to giving it to a nursing home.

Then I also like to equate it-- and this is probably my favorite analogy to the IRS. We all get our taxes and everyone goes, "Oh my God. I don't want to pay this much in taxes." We all have our legal deductions that allow us to pay the lowest amount of taxes. I equate Medicaid the same way. We have great laws in the state of Florida that give us Medicaid-compliant tools to protect as much assets as possible and only have the income go to pay for the nursing home. It's actually encouraged by the state that you do use these tools so you can protect assets. They don't want both spouses impoverished.

Let's say, in this scenario, if this person's married and they spent down $300,000, well, what's the wife going to live off of if she's healthy? The goal is to protect the assets for the spouse. There's a lot of different ways of looking at it.

Tom: Robert, I've been doing estate planning for over 40 years, and guess what? For over 40 years people have asked me, "Tom, how do I protect my wealth from the cost of a nursing home?" I know this is on people's minds. I know that this is important to people, and I'm so glad that we're happy to offer this service. The other thing that I would say is that all the tools that we're using are Medicaid-compliant tools. They are perfectly legitimate and legal, everything that we're doing.

Also, when we're doing these Medicaid-compliant tools, parents can be on Medicaid and still get the benefit of their wealth because their wealth is really just passing to the kids earlier. The kids can turn right around and use this money to help mom and dad with supplemental things in the nursing homes. Seasonal gifts, I know. Cell phones, TV, cable TV, trips, hair appointments, et cetera.

Robert: Even like we know the house is not accountable asset, and everyone's like, "Oh, thank God they can't take my house," but the truth be told is if you are in a nursing home and all the income is going to the nursing home, well, someone has to upkeep the house. Insurance, property tax. They're usually going to keep the grass maintained. They're going to keep power on. If you don't have a lot of money, if your kids don't have a lot of money to pay for their own house and your house, the benefits that are protected to them can upkeep their parents' house.

Tom: Yes. Texter, thank you for that. We appreciate it. I understand where you're coming from. We just want the public to be educated to know that most people think, "Oh, Medicaid's got a five-year look-back period. Nothing we can do," but that is not the case. Here at the Olsen Law Group, we have all the Medicaid-compliance tools we need to protect your life savings from the cost of a nursing home.

Texter, come learn about it. You can use it, not use it. If you don't use it, if you run into friends, neighbors, acquaintances, people at the work that they say, "Oh, mom's going to a nursing home. Everything she's worked for down a drain, $10,000 a month," well, you can tell them and they can make a decision whether or not they want to use this service as well. It's very powerful. Again, most people in nursing homes are on Medicaid, so why not join the party, you might say.

Robert: Yes. My goal would be-- I always try to tell people in our workshops, "You came to Tom. He created a great estate plan for you." My goal is that you carry that out. Obviously, I want them to have what they want. I don't want their money to go to a nursing home. We go to great lengths so they can preserve all their assets for their kids so they can have that inheritance.

Tom: Again, thank you, texter. We appreciate that.

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