When planning for late-term life, one of the questions that comes up is how to pay for possible assisted living. People in Texas are living longer than ever, due to very impressive advances in medical science. While a longer lifespan is good news, the reality is that many older Americans are going to need assistance of some sort in their old age with everyday tasks. In order to account for this, more and more Americans are factoring long-term care into their estate planning. Some Americans want to rely on Medicare for this. However, according to AARP, Medicare does not cover any kind of long-term care.
Medicare will cover care in a short-term basis due to an acute illness or injury. For instance, if you have to undergo a surgery and your doctor states that you will need to spend some time in a nursing home recovering, Medicare will cover this for a very specific amount of time. However, in the event that you require daily assistance with tasks, Medicare will not cover this at all.
Medicaid will cover long-term care in certain instances, but you will be required to demonstrate that you are below a certain income threshold to apply. There is also a “look-back” period for Medicare to prevent people from offloading assets to artificially be below the required income threshold.
There are many ways to plan for potential long-term care, but it is important to start early. Depending on your situation you can choose to purchase a form of long-term care insurance, or potentially add a rider onto a life-insurance plan. However, do not rely on Medicare to cover long-term care.
