My MIL has dimintia. A few weeks ago I was told she can't be left alone anymore. I am trying to get some help and respite care. There is not enough money to hire someone to come and help with her and we certainly can't afford to pay for her to stay somewhere for a few days while I have a break for a few days. I was encouraged to try to get her on Medicaid so we could have someone come in a few hours a week. However, she has a term life ins. policy for $12,000.00 that disqualifies her. I don't understand how this can be considered an asset when it has no cash value and can only be used after she has passed. It will be used to bury her.
Does anyone know of any kind of help I can get for her and myself
Keep in mind that at 12k any settlement is going to pay very very little.
Like pitiful low amount of $.
You could be getting no interest from any legal in all this time & paperwork needed to deal with this perhaps isn't worth it; family will be unhappy....which good attys don't want.
Do you know definitely & for positively that for sure MILs city /county has a 1whole day a week caregiver goes to mil home caregiver program really available for medicaid eligible elderly?
Mil since she is civil service annuitant probably gets a monthly federal retirement and SS as well. She probably has a solid consistent monthly income & probably has a federal BcBS as her secondary health insurer. So her health care costs between Medicare & BCBS should be low to nonexistent. MIL should have the income to self pay for a 1day a week in home health service for a few hours if that is what you need to get a break & get things done. Perhaps try doing this for a few months first to see if this can work. This way mil doesn't cash out her 12k life insurance and no need for medicaid.
As an FYI my dad was a fed, my mom as his surviving spouse, had FEHIB with BCBS & Medicare so almost zero copay. Most of her docs would not take patients who were just Medicaid & Medicare. So think carefully if switching her to Medicaid will be a problem. When mom finally outlived her $ and went onto NH Medicaid, BCBS got suspended as they will not pay a penny once both Medicare & Medicaid are available. My dad retired in the 1970's and mom got about $1800 /1900 a mo between survivor civil service annuity & SS. It's was a good bit of monthly income, she was most fortunate. Mom had in home health 3times a week private pay post rotor cuff surgery for a while, yeah it cost but the income was there & she needed help. What is your MILs income? If she is civil service annuitant & SS, she should, i would imagine, have some $ to pay for 1day a week few hours of care I would think. But I could be wrong. Really keeping them off medicaid and using their own funds allows for them to have more options. If they live long enough, they will eventually run out of $$ and apply for medicaid. But putting Medicaid off till absolutely necessary allows for more choices imho.
My MIL's life ins policy has no cash value and no one can do anything with it until she passes. She worked Civil Service for 33 yrs. and it's through the U. S. Govt. The medicaid waiver program I'd what I am trying to get. Keep her home but have a day I can go to grocery store or other things I might need to do. I am also being told she can't go in NH unless we pay for it and that isn't possible.
She refuses to let me help her get clean. And I know she can't get herself clean because of her size and shoulder problems. I don't know what to do ???
? for you....do you know that your state has a Medicaid paid in-home-health program? And that your MIL would qualify medically for it? And it's readily available? Or is this more that others have told you that they have heard that Medicaid pays for ths?? Has MIL done an actual Medicaid application for a specific program and been denied?
Medicaid paid services for the aged -other than for LTC in a NH - is done by each state under waiver funding & each state can determine what waivers will or won't happen but within an overall federal requirements. Right now the trend for states is to move away from 1-on-1 waivers for in-home or AL and going to 3 - 5 day a week 5/6 hr a day PACE programs at a community health center. Some states -like CA & Minn. - have well established in home programs. But most others don't. It may be that MIL if she needs 24/7 oversight will need to qualify fr care in a NH.