Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 14:27.
I'm in New York, so I don't know if our story applies to Virginia's readers. Anyway, I handled the spend-down to Medicaid with my Mom. Looking back, I regret being honest. Instead, I'd only have revealed enough money to demonstrate ability to pay for, say, two years of nursing home fees, based on combination of parents' income & savings. You want to be able to get your loved one into the nursing home of your choice. When we started, she had an income of $50K a year and savings of about $300K.
My parents' careful savings and frugality went to subsidize people who weren't careful and didn't save--all those seniors at bingo halls in the old days and casinos today, and all the Americans who spend beyond their means or spend all they have and don't save anything.
The irony is that, if the gov't had just taken my Mom's income from pension, SS, and her savings--and left the principal alone--they'd have gotten as much money as they did by taking everything and then having her on Medicaid for the last 2 years. Her private pay was about double what she paid when Medicaid kicked in -- and she was still paying over $2K a month. Being "on Medicaid" doesn't mean you're not paying anything.
Some country, maybe Denmark, has a system like I described: where the gov't takes all the income for NH care but leaves the principal for the family. Ten miles from where I sit, in Canada, nursing home care doesn't cost the families a dime.
A reader from New York on her spend down experience:
I'm in New York, so I don't know if our story applies to Virginia's readers. Anyway, I handled the spend-down to Medicaid with my Mom. Looking back, I regret being honest. Instead, I'd only have revealed enough money to demonstrate ability to pay for, say, two years of nursing home fees, based on combination of parents' income & savings. You want to be able to get your loved one into the nursing home of your choice. When we started, she had an income of $50K a year and savings of about $300K.
My parents' careful savings and frugality went to subsidize people who weren't careful and didn't save--all those seniors at bingo halls in the old days and casinos today, and all the Americans who spend beyond their means or spend all they have and don't save anything.
The irony is that, if the gov't had just taken my Mom's income from pension, SS, and her savings--and left the principal alone--they'd have gotten as much money as they did by taking everything and then having her on Medicaid for the last 2 years. Her private pay was about double what she paid when Medicaid kicked in -- and she was still paying over $2K a month. Being "on Medicaid" doesn't mean you're not paying anything.
Some country, maybe Denmark, has a system like I described: where the gov't takes all the income for NH care but leaves the principal for the family. Ten miles from where I sit, in Canada, nursing home care doesn't cost the families a dime.
Mary Jamison