A Look At Medicare & Medicaid
If you are planning for your retirement somewhere within the next 20 years you are certainly not alone. One of the most startling demographic statistics of our era is the way that so many people are reaching retirement age at a similar time, and the numbers speak for themselves. There are currently 10,000 people applying for Social Security every day, and this is supposed to continue for the next two decades. With this many people nearing retirement age questions abound with regard to health care for seniors, and of course Medicare is the health insurance program that most seniors will be relying on.
It is logical to assume that you become qualified for Medicare at the same time you become eligible to receive Social Security, but this is really not the case. Full retirement age for Social Security purposes varies depending on the year during which you were born. For those born between 1943 and 1950 full retirement age for Social Security is 66. After that it goes up by two months per year until 1960; people who were born in 1960 and later become eligible for Social Security on their 67th birthday as the rules stand at the present time.
In spite of the above, everyone becomes eligible for Social Security at the age of 65. There are those who assume that they will no longer have any health care expenses to worry about at this point, but this is not true because Social Security does not cover everything. One of the things that it does not cover is long-term care, but Medicaid will cover it under certain circumstances. To qualify for Medicaid as an elder who needs long-term care you cannot possess more than $2,000 in countable assets, but many significant assets don’t count, including your home, your car, and your personal possessions. In addition, if you are married and you need to enter a nursing home your spouse could keep his or her half of the countable assets without impacting your Medicaid eligibility (up to a limit of $109,560).
When you’re trying to formulate an effective retirement plan health care is certainly an issue, and given the complexity of these programs it can be difficult to know how to proceed. This is why it is a good idea to consult with an elder law attorney who understands Medicare and Medicaid inside and out so you can be certain that you are going forward in the optimal manner.
