Have you thought ahead about how you’ll afford long term care? Do you have a plan in place to qualify for MassHealth as soon as possible? If not, you could be setting you and your family members up for an unexpected surprise.
Long term care expenses are only going up. Even with increasing longevity, most people are likely to face a long-term care event at least once in their life that requires them to go to a nursing home or receive skilled care.
The average couple will need just shy of $300,000 in order to afford medical care in retirement- and that doesn’t include a lot of your other expenses. Most people haven’t planned ahead for this contingency with long-term care and are therefore hoping to qualify for state Medicaid benefits rather than self-fund.
Self-funding can be a very costly enterprise in and of itself, considering that a home health aide might cost around $50,000 per year and a private room in a nursing home is even higher. For a couple that has built their retirement plans on living healthily into old age together, one persons’ expenses in a self-fund situation could decimate the couple’s savings.
While this information can seem overwhelming, it does not have to be. The support of a talented Massachusetts elder law attorney can help you get many of your questions answered so that you know what to expect and how to plan ahead. Discussion of Medicaid qualification should ideally occur well in advance of a crisis situation, making it that much easier for you to set yourself or a loved one up for the care they need as soon as possible.
Ready to talk through how to plan for Medicaid in Massachusetts? Have questions about your current assets or financial situation? Schedule a meeting now with an elder law lawyer in Massachusetts.
