I truly can’t keep this up for my own health. What options do I have?

Well, if your mom won't qualify for Medicaid for 18 months, is that b/c there was a transfer of a large amount of her funds to you? If so, use those funds to pay for a care giver to come in and take care of your mom; your profile says she lives in Independent Living...so I assume she doesn't live with you...? Lots of assumptions here, I know.....but given little info, that's all anyone can do. My father transferred his portfolio over to me (the only child) back in 2014 and put it all in my name; I've been managing their finances ever since, using their money and keeping a very strict accounting of it as we go. Dad passed in 2015 but my mother is still alive and living in a Memory Care ALF. She will run out of money in 2021 and then I will apply for Medicaid; the 5 year look back expired in 2019, and I've been using their money for their care ever since the transfer in 14. Hopefully, you are in the same situation where there IS money for you to draw on for her care.

If not, I don't know why she wouldn't qualify for Medicaid for 18 months.

Is there someone else you can call upon in your family to help out? Your kids or nieces, nephews, etc? I know how hard it is to be the 'only child' and what a burden it leaves upon us. I'm thankful my husband has been very helpful with my folks, but even so, the mental and emotional burden ALL falls on me.

Sending you a hug and a prayer for a good resolution for your mother and good health for YOU!

Dear "Momsonlychild,"

When my dad passed away in 2004 at the age of 82, I told him right before he took his last breath that my husband and I would take care of my mom. She was still pretty self sufficient at 79 and hadn't been diagnosed with Alzheimer's until she was 89 in 2014. So for 10 years I went back and forth between my childhood home and our own house to help.

I too, knew I couldn't keep on like this. There was no money to have in home care of any kind, no other family in our state and she couldn't move in with us. We had a small, two-story house with both bedrooms and both bathrooms upstairs plus our dog.

She always wanted me to promise her I wouldn't put her in a nursing home - and I didn't. But, I did have to move her out of the house I grew up in since 1968 into an ALF. The only way she could afford it was by me selling her house in order to pay the monthly rent.

After surviving COVID and nearly dying of severe dehydration in April, a placement agent given to us by the discharge case manager at the rehab she went to after being in the hospital, found a facility for us. We moved her into the new facility in May in their memory care unit and she's now under hospice care. She is 95 and doing quite well which has helped me with my own health crisis when my doctor said I would either die of a massive stroke or go permanently blind from developing Temporal Arteritis at the young age of 52 back in 2015. I take a low dose of a chemotherapy drug to keep things in check. In my case, if something happened to me there really wouldn't be anyone who could take care of her. Her 5 remaining siblings all live in other states and range in age from 75 to 90.

I needed to take care of me in order to take care of her. I hope you will find a way to do the same.

You're right to admit that you're not able to handle being her caregiver anymore. If she's not qualifying for Medicaid for another 18 months, then use the money she has to spend down on some homecare help. Also, you can get her placement in a nursing home even if she doesn't qualify for Medicaid yet. They will take her remaining assets and then they take care of the Medicaid application. Call some nursing homes in your area and ask to speak to a social worker. Tell them what's going on. They will take her in a facility. Or, if you need to do something immediate you can do what is known as an ER dump. Bring her to the hospital and tell them you need a Social Admit because there is no one to take care of her. They will admit her to the hospital until they find nursing home placement for her.

I feel bad for your mother because she is now vulnerable in the sense that she gave you her condo from her divorce and now she’s the one who pays rent for her own apartment. That’s not fair to her.
I don’t think you should bail on her now.

The reason why she doesn’t have the funds to pay for her own long term needs is because she gifted you her already paid for condo? I’m trying to understand.

If so I feel you are responsible to care for her until the 5 year look back is over.
I also don’t understand why you and your husband won’t get a mortgage & buy it from mom thus she’ll have enough money to pay for LTC.

You’ve benefited greatly from your mother’s unselfishness. Now she needs you to be unselfish as well as her situation has changed.

So in my opinion you either buy or sell your mother’s condo (that you are living in) and use the money for her care or you care for her yourself until she becomes eligible for Medicare at 65. Does mom have health insurance now? Who is paying for this?

Medicare does not pay for long term care. If you are steering her into Medicaid she’ll have to spend down her assets to qualify and will then be placed in a Medicaid LTC center.

If not for your mother, you & your hubby would be out on the street. I don’t feel you should abandon your mother & throw up your hands at this point.

What do you expect to do when mom turned 65?

Hugs. I get where you are. The Medicaid thing is really the sticking point, right?

Would it be worth your time to contact a local political figure, to seek help for getting her Medicaid status reviewed? Would that sort of advocacy help you to feel a little more stable when addressing your own welfare?

We haven’t done a Medicaid situation for many years (I appear to have been designated my family’s caregiver-for life, I sometimes think), but the last time we did, there was “some” leeway between “no Medicaid” and “partial Medicaid” status, and my husband and I were able to negotiate an arrangement that provided for my MIL’s care but didn’t require the sale of the property.

Would it be of help if you could find a way to reduce the 18 months, or change the qualifying terms in some other way? I have no answer to this, but perhaps you could seek out someone savvy to give you some other thoughts?

Your situation CLEARLY represents a significant hardship to at least you and your mother. If you’ve attempted EVERY LITTLE POSSIBILITY, BLESS YOU, and please forgive me for suggesting the obvious, if it seems too obvious for you to benefit from.

I suspect that this may happen to more victims than just you, and it sure does represent a flaw in the way the system works.

Hoping and praying that you come up with something that will be able to pull you and your mom out of this logistical swamp.......

Momsonly, consider contacting Gabriel Heiser, one of the experts on this site. It seems to me that I recall that there are sometimes compassionate exceptions made in Medicaid denials.

Mr. Heiser would know about this.

Medicaid doesn't care if the condo is your home. The look back period is more than three years. A person can't just gift their assets to their heirs and then expect the state to pick up the bill for their care because they don't have any money left. You have two choices here. 1) Put her in a care facility because you cannot care for her anymore. The property will have to be sold. Lifetime use doesn't count if she goes into long term care. 2) Sell the condo she rents as an income property and pay for homecare. This is how it is. You're not going to get her care paid for while she has assets.

Have you consulted an eldercare attorney about possibly undoing the poor financial decision that your mother made in gifting you the condo? That's the source of the lack of medicaid, yes?

Adjusting to life in a condo after being in a house must be hard. Is that what the storage bill is? The rest of your furniture & belongings? Or Mom's things?

Does Mom need 24/7 care? Or daytime supervision? Would a daycare program be sufficient?

We are dealing with the same issue. It’s affecting my health tremendously. We finally broke down and hired an elder care attorney. The money paid has been worth it. We finally have someone helping us navigate the complicated Medicaid process. I’m sorry you are struggling.