elder law consultation

When you are preparing for your senior years, you are invariably going to envision your active retirement years. This type of planning is important. However, you should also consider the twilight years that will follow your active retirement years. The eventualities are something that you should discuss with an elder law attorney in Kew Gardens New York.

Questions to Ask an Elder Law Attorney in Kew Gardens

HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR LONG-TERM CARE?

This is one question that you should definitely ask an elder law attorney. Long-term care is very expensive, with the average annual expense for a room in a nursing home exceeding $130,000 in the state of New York. These expenses are very high right now, but long-term care costs have been rising by a few percentage points year-by-year. If you are not concerned because you are going to be qualified for Medicare, you should definitely become apprised of the facts. Medicare won’t pay for long-term care. Assistance with your activities of daily living is considered to be custodial care rather than medical care. Medicare does not assist with custodial care costs. When you discuss this matter with your elder law attorney, you will hear about Medicaid planning. Medicaid is a government health insurance program that will pay for long-term care costs. As you are probably aware, Medicaid is a need-based program. If you have significant assets and income you cannot qualify for Medicaid. However, many people who were not poor throughout their lives ultimately rely on Medicaid to pay for long-term care. Some of them suffer great losses. They do not plan ahead, and they wind up spending everything that they have paying for long-term care. At that point, once they actually do have significant financial need, they can qualify for Medicaid. Others take a different approach. If you decide that you want to be prepared to apply for Medicaid at some point in the future, you can take steps now to position your assets with Medicaid eligibility rules and regulations in mind. It may be possible to preserve resources for the well-being of your loved ones while still being able to gain eligibility if you take the right steps.

THIS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU

When you are considering the relevance of Medicaid planning, you may take it with a grain of salt. You have always been healthy enough to take care of yourself. You don’t see that ever changing, even if things may become more difficult. In fact, according to the United States Department of Health at Human Services, most Americans will need help with their day-to-day needs eventually. This is something that is relevant to everyone, regardless of your health or lifestyle at the present time. Hopefully you will never need living assistance. However, prudent individuals will definitely prepare for the possibility.