A common estate planning goal for many people is to avoid Medicaid estate recovery. One way of planning for an individual’s long-term care costs and potentially reducing Medicaid estate recovery is to purchase long-term care insurance.
The Missouri Long-Term Care Partnership Program allows for combining private long-term care insurance and Medicaid funds to pay for long-term care. Under the program, certain non-exempt assets may be disregarded for Medicaid eligibility purposes. If a MO HealthNet (commonly referred to as Medicaid) applicant has purchased a long-term care partnership policy, long-term care insurance that covers services that would otherwise be covered by MO HealthNet, certain resources of the individual will not be considered in the individual’s subsequent MO HealthNet eligibility determination. Essentially, to the extent that the resources are equal to the amount of certain long-term care insurance benefit payments, those assets will be “disregarded” and not counted as part of the individual’s $999.99 asset limit. In addition, such disregarded resources are not later subject to estate recovery requirements. In short, by purchasing qualified long-term care insurance, an individual is able to exempt additional assets from MO HealthNet eligibility requirements and MO HealthNet estate recovery requirements.
The Missouri Department of Insurance has put together a fantastic set of Long-Term Care FAQs.
If you have additional questions about long-term care insurance, call or come visit the elder law and estate planning attorneys at the Paul Law Firm. Consultations are always free!