Show #269 Airing Sunday, September 12, 2004
We’ve talked in the past about how the Medicaid program deals with your life savings. I’ve explained that you cannot have much money or property and still obtain Medicaid nursing home coverage.
Today, I want to talk about your income. Let’s say your husband goes into a nursing home. What happens to your and his Social Security, pension, and other income? Will it all go to the nursing home? How will you survive? You’d better listen closely. If you don’t understand the Medicaid income rules, you could lose a lot of money.
Let’s start with the basics: The name on the check rule. If your husband goes to a nursing home, and you’re home, you keep any income checks that arrive with your name on it.. You don’t have to use your income to pay your spouse’s nursing home bills.
Your spouse’s income generally goes to the nursing home. If he gets $1,000 per month Social Security, that goes to the nursing home. If he qualifies for Medicaid, then Medicaid will pay the rest of the monthly nursing home bill.
Your husband does get to keep a little bit of his income for his personal needs. The government lets him keep all of 40 dollars per month, to cover meals out with family, hair cuts, magazines, new clothes, and everything else he might need. Pretty generous, right? The rest of his income goes to the nursing home, and you keep yours.
If your husband’s monthly income is 500 dollars, that goes. But you keep your monthly income, even if it’s $3,000 or $4,000.
The problem is, the spouse at home is usually the wife, and she usually has much less income in her name. Often the husband’s income is much higher, and his goes to the nursing home.
Let’s say your husband gets $3,000 monthly income from a pension and Social Security, but your monthly income is only $300. If his income goes to the nursing home, how will you survive on just $300? This is the disaster many married couples face when a spouse enters a nursing home.
Thankfully, there’s a rule that at least sometimes lets you keep more of your institutionalized spouse’s income.
Here’s how the rule works: If your income is less than 1,562 dollars per month, then you are permitted to draw from your husband’s income to bring you up to that amount.
In my example, with $300 of your own income, you could get $1,262 of your husband’s income as a supplement, to bring you up to $1,562. And in some cases, you can get even more of your spouse’s income. If you can show that your expenses justify more, you may be able to get as much as $2,319 per month.
But if you don’t ask, you don’t get! Medicaid won’t automatically offer this benefit on its own.
The Medicaid rules are complicated. And unfortunately, there’s no easy place to get good information. Even though Medicaid is the biggest program in the State of Ohio, the State doesn’t put out even a single brochure that fully explains the Medicaid rules.
Where can you find help? A top choice for good, timely, and accurate information-- is right here, on Golden Opportunities. And on our website at www.golden.tv. Even if the State won’t tell you the rules, we will.
