We thought my father had assisted living insurance but its only for nursing home. Any ideas where to find more available funds?

Your Dad was never in the service during Wartime? The Korean? He didn't have to be in the fighting just serving at that time. If yes, then he could apply for Aid and Attendance. It wouldn't cover the complete cost of an AL but with SS and pension, maybe some savings he could make the total cost.

Medicaid in some states will provide bed and board funding for AL with a medical needs wavier. In TN, Medicare covers a fee for required medical treatment and the Medicaid wavier covers the bed and board Medicare does not cover.

Probably too late to get insurance. If your father's income is below the state's "OSS" Optional State Supplement limit - some facilities will take this form of Medicaid for Asst. Living. There are not a lot of them, and most of them are usually not acceptable, since they are for the "less fortunate", but that is the only option I can think of.

Having Long Term Care insurance is great, however - you will just want to watch his ability to do his ADLs (activities of daily living) and be able to move him to a nursing home (sadly) as soon as possible, to take advantage of those benefits.

Re. the VA benefits - does he not qualify because he didn't serve during "war time", or because of his income/assets? Important to meet with a VA rep to learn how to reduce his income by unreimbursed medical expenses, if the reason is income. The VA now has a 3-yr look back period - if that is the reason, if assets were transferred in that 3-yr period, that is another matter - need to return the assets transferred.

Good Luck.

Are you absolutely sure he wouldn’t qualify for a nursing home? At 87 he’s pretty remarkable if he can perform the required number of his ADLs.

My mother's LTC insurance also doesn't cover AL. We (my 3 brothers and I) still tried to convince her to go to AL, as she obviously needed the help. Her LTC insurance also covered in-home help, but she refused to have someone come in.

In Oct 2018 she had a gallbladder infection and went from "independent" living in her condo to the hospital for 17 days, then rehab, then placement in a SNF. She bypassed AL and went right to SNF. Her LTC insurance kicked in after the 30-day exclusion period (once she was no longer Medicare-rehab qualified).

I know there have been some lawsuits over the LTC policies that only cover SNFs. I'd think long and hard about taking THAT route, though.

Even though my mother clearly qualified for the SNF, it still took months for the LTC insurance to qualify her. They used the S T A L L technique. But they eventually qualify her, and it was retroactive.