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If a member of my family has finished paying my house that it may affect my Medicaid

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Are you on Medicaid now, or are you applying for it?

Is the house still in your name? Are you planning to change that?
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In most cases, if you are on Medicaid or want to go on Medicaid, it should not effect your status if someone does something for you unless they give you cash or put money into your bank account. If you qualify for Medicaid, it is based on your income, not on your debts. So if a member of your family wants to pay off your house loan, I do not think that would affect your Medicaid status, but they would have to pay it directly to the lender. If they gave you the money to pay off your home, then you would be in trouble because that money would be counted as income and would affect your Medicaid status.

For example, my understanding is that I can pay my dad's house payment if I pay it directly to the lender. If I give him the money to make his house payment then it would be counted as additional income for him. Basically, you can't give a person on Medicaid or wanting to apply for Medicaid cash. You can, however, pay some of their bills if you pay them directly to the creditor.

I AM NOT AN ELDER ATTORNEY AND THAT IS WHO YOU SHOULD BE TALKING TOO. I just want to make that clear because rules change or I and others can misunderstand them. I think this is workable for you, but you need to talk to an elder attorney who specializes in Medicaid issues before anyone does anything.

Good Luck, Cattails
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Cattails is spot-on.

There are a couple of things to think about...if it is the situation that you need to go into a NH and qualify for Medicaid to pay for the NH, BUT you still have a home and you keep the home in your name and do not sell it there are things to consider. Now once you are in the NH, all your $ less whatever is your states monthly "personal care allowance" must be paid to the NH. So the expenses related to your home will basically have to be paid by others - you do not have to sell the home to qualify for Medicaid - but will have no $ to maintain the home.

So there will be insurance, utilities, lawn care, maintenance, property taxes, etc that must be paid on the property. If there still is a mortgage, it can add up to a lot of $ over a year or years. Someone has to pay this. But whomever pays for this, can go the paperwork (done by an attorney) so there is a contract between you and whomever is paying that they will be reimbursed for all $ spend upon the eventual sale of the home. Also whomever pays on house stuff can let MERP (Medicaid estate recovery) know that they will file their own claim or lien against the estate that will be paid first and before the MERP claim.

One thing to be cautious about is letting the mortgage company know that you are no longer living in the home. They could call the loan and require you to pay it off in full and there could be a sizable early payoff penalty.

My mom is in a NH on Medicaid and she still owns her homestead exempted property which sits empty. She gets $ 60 a mo in personal care allowance and all that $ goes into her NH trust fund to pay for hairdresser and shopping trips and other needs (like new socks or magazines). She has no money to pay for other things at $ 60 a month. I and another family member pay for all on the house, and upon her death we will let MERP know that we will file our own claim in probate for any and all expenses on the property. My mom does an annual letter that states her intention to return to live at her home when she is capable. The letter was done by her attorney and I just update it for each year. Like cattails, I am a firm advocate of having an elder care or estate attorney do whatever paperwork is needed and that will work for the law in your state. Good luck.
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Tonin: Could you tell us how much you still owe on your house and a little more about your health situation?
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