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OK, dad "quit-claimed" his house to my sister and I over 10 years ago, and we just put him in a NH this July and applied for Medicaid. Since it is over the 5 year look-back, does that mean Medicaid cannot "count" the house as an asset? After he passes, will Medicaid try and collect any money? Besides this house (which is currently for sale) what if anything, can Medicaid charge us? Dad has no other income except Pension/SS which we are paying to the NH.

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They will not count it as an asset. You should be ok. As long as the sale $ is not to him, but to you and your sister.
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As long as you & Sis did the follow through on the QCD you should be ok....so did you file QCD at courthouse so property ownership is legally changed 10 years ago and reflected in tax & insurance bills (so in your name) and dad no longer files a homestead exemption on property?

About the house sale, ask your Realtor if mortgage companies in your area are skittish on lending on QCD properties. QCD does not provide a guarantee of ownership, only a warranty deed does that. Sometimes a QCD will need an extra layer of title clearance for lenders. Which means more time to go to act of sale & costs to seller. You don't want a surprise & delay right before act of sale of you can help it.
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Quit-claiming is transferring ownership to the person named. You basically own that house and any proceeds from the sale of said house belongs to you.
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Some states do require that following a deed of transfer of real estate the deed be recorded in the local register of deeds, in order for them to recognize the transfer. Hopefully this was done 10 years ago! If so, the state will not count the house as an asset of your father's and nor will they seek recovery against the house following his death for the Medicaid benefits provided to him. The state can only seek such recovery against assets in your father's name at the time of his death; they cannot seek recovery against other family members.
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I might add, I am assuming you had this quit-claim recorded with your local assessor's office or which ever agency handles property. I did this recently and it was easy!
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The best thing you can do is contact an attorney for advice on this. I have a feeling you will be able to keep the house because this action happened so many years ago. But, it is best to find out for sure. It is a shame when a family has to lose their assets, especially when you know that it was the intention of the elder to pass the house on to you. Please get legal advice for your own peace of mind. It's better to know for sure.
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You have been advised that you will not have to hand over the proceeds of the house sale.
The one thing I will add though, who do you think will be paying for your loved one's care? Yes, you are correct your fellow taxpayers. We do have to take care of those less fortunate, that is true but it is not a right for people to have free health care just because they took time to protect their assets many years ago. If you have the money you have to pay your bills.
This may not be a popular concept but in my book it comes under the same heading as the very rich hiding their assets in offshore bank accounts. O.K. I am wearing my helmet the pink one with "Nothing is free in this word" on the front.
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To Veronica91, many people will feel as you do. In my own family, I did have to sell my parent's home when it was clear that my mother could no longer be cared for at home. We have burned through all of my parents' savings, inheritances my mother received from siblings who passed, and now the proceeds from the sale of her home. In other words hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, I speak from experience. It is sad that in a wealthy country such as the USA, we do not have any programs that are "reasonable" to pay for decent long term care. I can sleep at night because we are "private pay" and therefore I was able to find a GOOD nursing home for my mother. When her assets are exhausted, we will have to apply for Medicaid. She will be able to remain in her present nursing home. We are not wealthy people. My parents and grandparents worked hard all of their lives. Their plan was to leave their assets behind for their children to enjoy. It didn't work out that way. My advice to aging, still-healthy, parents is to give your children what you would like them to have while you still can, and while you can see them enjoy it. I have no real complaints. I am well educated, retired and am living on a pension, social security and my savings. Even so, I still believe that as a wealthy, modern nation, we should all pay sufficient taxes so that the elderly can be provided for in a more dignified, and humane way. In my opinion, so many Americans have nasty attitudes about providing resources for health care for everyone. I think it is shameful. And, furthermore, the wealthy can afford long-term, in-home, 24 hour care. Just my opinion....
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Cinderella5001

There is one program that pays for decent long term care, it's called prison.
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Sorry, I agree with Veronica on this one! My FIL has lived with us for the last 13 years, and we could easily have "hidden" over a quarter of a Million dollars he had when he first moved in, but instead, encouraged him to keep his money in safe investments, making interest, and put away for his future needs! He is now facing the probability of Assisted living, and will need that money to pay his own way. There will most likely come a time when he will run out of money, and need to apply for Medicaid, but he will have paid out as much as he had, and will still be able to apply his 2 pensions and his SS, shoud he run out.

Would he have preferred to leave all of his money to the one Son, who has looked after him these last 13 years and his Mom before that, Sure, but we would never wish to take his money intended for his long term needs! We will get by on the money we've earned, and our own kids now understand that there will be no inheritance for them either! Tough life lessons!
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Beronica, Im]'putting on my pink hat with flowers and standing with you. I share your opinions on the Medicaid issue.

Cinderella, even if there were support for a tax increase to expand care for the elderly, the politicians would siphon much of it off and direct it to pork barrel projects. I write that with some rancor, but also with of a sense of "that's how it is."

Zytrhr, there's a big difference between life care for prisoners vs. the aged. I don't know how you could make a comparison - it's not even close to the common used analogy of comparing apples and oranges.

Obviously, prisoners are incarcerated because they've committed crimes and need to be isolated from society. There's no gratuity involved; it's a matter of protection for society from them. That's hardly on a par with taking care of elderly people.
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Stacey, do you have a pink hat as well? Join Veronica and me.
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Well, if there's ever a reason for allowing editing of posts, it's to correct my goof-up in identifying Veronica as Beronica, although maybe she'd like a new nickname?
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GA, My Pink hat is permanently welded onto my head! Wouldn't we Love to have had all of that money in an inheritance package? You bet! But I wouldn't feel very good, knowing that we scammed our government out of the many thousands needed for his eventual care! Who knows what life will bring, maybe there Will be monies left over, as who knows what the future brings, but it is His money now, safely protected for His care. Now, if we did decide to go on, and keep him here in our home, in our custody and care, my husband would eventually inherit his Dad's money, but to what end? My husband and I missing out on any chance of ever enjoying our own retirement? And don't think that we haven't thought on this, but No, the money isn't worth it in the long run, and our future, enjoying it the best we can, Is more important. We given him a nice life for 13 years, and now that we too are running out of gas, caring for him all these years, it's Our Time, and we intend to go after it. We both worked hard all our lives, saved and invested, raised our kids, and have done right by all 4 of our parents and they understood this, even his Dad understands that the time is now! We will not abandon him, we will still be there, advocate for his good care and wellbeing, visiting him and including him in our lives, but we will begin to have some independence, and be able to get some traveling in, as long as he is safe and well cared for. He will pay his own way, just as we will to the best of our ability.

If every parent signed over their homes and life savings to their children, well in advance of their needing their own monies to live in Senior housing and care facilities, our government would be in an even worsen position then it already is! It's scary to even think about!
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Anyone can do some research and find a lot of taxpayer funded projects and activities, some of which are probably offensive to many of us.

The question is, what are you going to do about it? I say, put your money where your mouth is and do something other than posting on a forum. You aren't going to change anything here.
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The health care in prisons is minimal and nothing to write home about.. The prison world is big business for profit. As long as the big profit is the incentive behind those who run it , health care will remain in the hands of the greedy CEOs and the stock holders they are beholden to. Health care should be based on peoples needs before profits or the profits incentive needs to be removed.
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Health care is expensive because of the massive cost of doctors needing to have malpractice insurance because so many people are quick to sue.

Health care is also very expensive because of the cost of the state-of-the-art equipment that is available in hospitals and large doctor practice offices. For a state-of-the-art 3 Tesla MRI machine, the price tag to buy one $3M. And let's not forget the cost of the room to hold that MRI, it can cost hundreds of thousands more.
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I dont think malpractice law suites and the costs of high tech equipment is as much a issue in countries that have single payer health care, (socialized medicine). They receive better health care than people in the US. The US , last I read is not rated very high in global health care. Yet we pay more, probably for the reasons u site, but also, we pay 30% more for medications, medications made by the same drug companies globally. Many of the largest drug companies are in the US and they sell to foreign country's cheaper than to their own citizens here in the US. That is why so many seniors were traveling across the border to Canada to get prescriptions filled . Until the US told Canada they would hike the prices if they didn't crack down .
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Well, I guess I need a wardrobe addition. Can GA, Stacey or Veronica suggest the best place to purchase a pink hat? I am firmly of the opinion that parent's money should be used for their care, not hidden for inheritance purposes. I am experiencing this myself as my mother nears the bottom of the over $400,000 she had when my father died nearly 10 years ago. Assisted living, memory care and the dismal interest rates have drained the piggy bank pretty fast. I only wish that there would be some credit given to the fact that mom has been private pay for all these years and maybe deserves a better choice of facility in her remaining years. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter that my father worked hard for 70 years and saved the state hundreds of thousands of dollars, she will be treated just like someone who is on Medicaid from day one. I don't want to inherit anything, I just want her to get top quality care.

On an unrelated note, how do you ladies feel about some of the extraordinary medical services provided for prisoners? In my state, prisoners are allowed to have organ transplants, plastic surgery "to improve their self-esteem" and even gender re-assignment surgery on the government's dime. I believe that these folks deserve basic medical care, but it does bother me a bit that they get free services that hard working, contributing members of society may not be able to afford. Any thoughts?
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AK, I'm opposed to those kinds of benefits for prisoners; that goes far beyond basic medical care. I can only speculate why or how these benefits were allowed to occur. It's REALLY offensive though; if I wanted any of those benefits (which I don't), I'd have to go into debt. I'd settle just for vision and dental care, which I suspect prisoners get.

Nor do I approve of the Club Fed benefits, even if the prisoners there are more of the white collar Martha Stewart, Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken type.

An interesting program was aired on PBS tonight which revealed another scam and abuse of taxpayer funds. I missed the title, but it addressed for profit colleges, like University of Phoenix. Apparently it and other similar for profit colleges exploited the real estate recession, as people tend to go back to college during recessions. They targeted people who probably wouldn't have gone to college otherwise and made a bundle of money.

These so-called colleges had sales teams (like telemarketers) contacting people who signed up online for information on colleges. The hustlers tried to convince people who were considered subpar (not the word they used - I don't remember their categorization) and probably wouldn't be able to get into any 4 year college.

One couple was a homeless couple who had been living underneath a viaduct. After signing up to go to college, and being advised they would get federal student loans, they moved their tent home to an area closer to college.

Obviously someone living in a tent would not be in a position to repay a loan.

Fast forward, and eventually the large number of "students" getting federal loans (applied by for the colleges themselves) came to the attention of federal legislators, who went after the colleges. Fast forward again, and another large private college as well as other smaller ones were shut down.

The end of the segment addressed the closure of ITT Technical Institute. The program was vague on whether or not ITT was engaging in the same unscrupulous practices, but the inference was it was.

Millions of dollars were granted in student loans that probably will never be repaid, to individuals who probably would have benefited more from vocational training.

There were especially eggregious instances cited. Three woman obtained "degrees" in nursing. One stated that her psych rotation consisted of time at the church of scientology. The pediatric rotation was a week in a day care center. I don't recall what the third was.

I recall that one never got a job with this so-called degree and eventually went to a real college for a real education.

The amount of tax dollars wasted, and obtained under dubious principles was in the millions.
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I too had to laugh! I appreciate the candidness in many of the responses. I agree that everyone should pay a fair amount of taxes across the board. I also believe that the elderly should be provided quality care and be allowed to live their last days with dignity. I have been researching nursing homes for when the time comes where I can no longer provide the care that is needed for her. The ratings of many of these facilities are truly unbelievable. My mother had Medicare/Medicaid and I have no problem with giving up the house to pay for her care. I was recently told that you can use insurance policies to pay for long term care - not sure if this was credible information.
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A house in a non-countable asset.
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GardenArtist

Have you read/heard imprisoned Chelsea Manning has been approved for gender reassignment which taxpayers will pay for?
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I'm not sure I aee what's wrong with that.
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I have to add my 2 cents worth, if your dad needs medicaid then he should have it reguardless whether he gave you the house or not.
These people that wear their pink helments probably have never cared day and nite for a parent!!! My mither begged me to not put her in a nursing home, so like a good daughter i didnt, she agreed to pay me a wage so 8 would quit my job...... That was 10 years ago, i was 51 and now 61and will have no retirement ir much in social security when she is gone.
Im burnt out to say the least, its ruined my second marriage to the point we cant do or go anywhere without it costing a fortune!!! I no longer ever have me time, or us time or time for my kids and grandkids, im so so tired so if it takes medicaid to take care if a parent then do it, i wished i had done it all differently.
Besides look how many young people are on medicaid. It does not pay to work all your life to have a, decent life to have it all ripped away!!!
Sorry this is so long but peopke who do not step up to the plate like i did to take care if a parent gave NO idea!!!
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Bessie, you're assuming facts not in evidence. How much do you know about us pink hatters? Not much I think.

I don't need to defend anything I wrote or explain the various levels of caregiving since 1999 for my now deceased mother and sister and my almost 100 year old father.

You're not the only one who's made a lot of sacrifices, or the only who's suffered and compromised financially.
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Bessie, Pink hatter here, and ive got well over 20 years of personal hands on Caregiving under my belt, thank you! Plus 30+ year career in healthcare! I think I have a clue!
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bessie: To quit your job was a bad move on your part, but then you've already figured that out. Besides it's a moot point at this juncture.
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Bessie, grrrr! You have No idea the suffering, devotion and frustration I have gone through as a caregiver, and I resent your comments! People need to pay their way through life, to rhe best of their ability, and then rely on the government, if and when your monies run out, otherwise it's not fair to all of us other taxpayers! The nerve of some people!
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zytrhr: The only thing wrong with "the three sqaures a day" is that, depending on the crime, you may be in line for the hot seat.
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