Medicare is the way that countless older Americans pay for a plethora of medical expenses: from doctor bills to medication copays. Bear in mind, though, that this type of coverage doesn’t pay for all aspects of elder care. Texas seniors who live in assisted care facilities where staff help to bathe, dress, and feed the residents have to find another way to cover those costs because it’s not something that Medicare covers.
Finding out if you or your loved one qualifies for Medicaid is also an important part of anyone’s estate planning strategy for bearing the heavy financial burden of elder care. This program helps to cover medical costs for those with limited resources.
It’s important to strategize your estate plan ahead of time to ensure that your or your loved one will receive the best possible care. The unfortunate truth is that elder care is extremely costly, and there are countless families out there who are simply unable to afford it.
Some of the key elder care payment strategies that everyone caring for an aging loved one should look into are:
- Annuities
- Personal care agreements
- Pooled Trusts
Gifts and irrevocable trusts
If you plan out your elder care far enough in advance, an older loved one may be able to give their assets to a relative such as one of their children as a gift. Another option is for them to establish an irrevocable trust. In either case, it creates an easier way to finance elder care later down the line.
As a last resort, spousal transfers and spousal refusals are ways of transferring the assets of one spouse to the other. This transfer comes with the advantage of not being penalized by Medicaid but comes with the legal obligation put onto the other spouse to provide care.