Oak Lawn Elder Law: Oak Lawn Elder Law | Nursing Home Planning

This is the first obstacle to placing a loved on in a nursing home is cost. As you may know, the cost of quality nursing home care can be daunting. The monthly cost of nursing home care is anywhere between $6,000 and $9,000 dollars per month. If you spend three years in a nursing home at the high end of that spectrum, you will pay $324,000. If a couple is to stay for this period of time, their cost is $648,000. Most people do not have well over a half of a million dollars to care for themselves at the end of their life. Additionally, most people have worked their whole life to be able to provide a little bit of wealth to their children or grandchildren. The thought of depleting this much of your wealth for three years of care causes many individuals to attempt to receive care at home. The problem with this is that the care they receive at home is inadequate. Additionally, the burden that unassisted home care places on the family is great. The disabled family member may need full time care. This requires one of the healthy family members to take off of work to be able to fulfill that role. Even if the family can work out their schedules so that no one has to take off of work, their entire free time will be dedicated to care of the disabled family member. This makes handling their own affairs difficult. It is often during these times that the family of the disabled individual falls into debt themselves. There are two, possibly three, ways that you can mitigate this "cost of care" obstacle.

Qualify for Medicaid through proper estate planning
Purchase Long Term Care Insurance from a knowledgeable agent.

Both of those options should involve your attorney. I also think your best option is to implement both. The reason both tools should be implemented is as a fail safe. There is an expression that professional planners use which is as follows; "Two is one, one is none". Why is this expression so valuable? I will explain what could happen to either option.

Medicaid - With the failing credit of both Illinois and the U.S. government, the likelihood that Medicaid will be available forever is highly unlikely. Eventually, Medicaid will either be reduced or eliminated. When this happens, you benefits are no longer certain. This is why, as long as you are receiving benefits you are OK, but there is no certainty that they will continue forever. Although this programs is your best solution to cover the costs for your nursing home care, you do not have control over how long the program lasts. That is why it is important to have a back up provision.

Long Term Care Insurance - Long term care covers most long term care situations. Like any contract though, it does not cover every situation. There are times when your situation may not be covered by your insurance contract. It is also possible that the company you have a contract with goes bankrupt. Although these situations are rare, it is important to have a back up plan.

I will include with this post, some links to one of my other blogs. This is my Estate Planning Blog, which covers more in depth medicaid planning and long term care insurance. As always I am always happy to answer your questions. Look for my contact information below.

Medicaid Planning Links

- Estate Planning Medicaid Post

Long Term Care Insurance

- Part One

- Part Two

Law Office of Jonathan W. Cole

5013 W. 95th St.

Oak Lawn, IL 60453

(708) 529-7794