As a senior, you may find that eligibility for Medicaid is crucial to help cover the high cost of long-term care. If so, one of your concerns may focus on a commonly held belief that your reliance on Medicaid will leave your spouse without income and/or assets. To put your mind at ease, the Medicaid planning attorneys at DeBruyckere Law Offices explain the New Hampshire Medicaid Minimum Monthly Needs Allowance.
Paying for Long-Term Care
The longer you live the better the odds are that you will need long-term care (LTC) at some point because of the physical and/or mental deterioration that typically accompanies aging. If you do end up needing LTC, expect that care to be costly. The average cost of a year in LTC nationwide for 2021 was over $100,000. New Hampshire residents paid, on average, more than the national average with an average cost of almost $145,000 per year that same year. While you may be counting on Medicare to cover your healthcare expenses as a senior, Medicare will not cover the cost of LTC. Unfortunately, neither will most private health insurance policies. Unless you can easily afford to pay out of pocket, that means you may need to qualify for Medicaid because Medicaid does cover LTC expenses.
New Hampshire Medicaid Eligibility Basics
Medicaid will help cover LTC expenses; however, you must first qualify for the program. Along with basic eligibility requirements, such as being a New Hampshire resident, Medicaid also sets both an income and a “countable resources” (assets) threshold. If either your income or countable resources exceed the limit your application will be denied. If your assets are above the limit, you will need to “spent-down” those assets until their value drops below the limit. It is the spend-down requirement that causes many people to fear that their spouse (referred to as the “community spouse”) will be left without resources if they need to turn to Medicaid for help with LTC costs. The good news is that the Medicaid “Spousal Impoverishment” rules protect a community spouse by allowing the spouse to retain certain assets and by using the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA).
Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance
In New Hampshire, Medicaid’s asset limits are $1,500-$2,500 for an individual applicant, and $1,500-$5,000 for married couples applying together. Moreover, all assets of a married couple are considered jointly owned regardless of the long-term care Medicaid program for which you are applying. The spousal impoverishment rules, however, allow the non-applicant spouse of a Medicaid nursing home or waiver applicant a Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA). In 2022, the community spouse (the non-applicant spouse) can retain 50 percent of the couple’s assets, up to a maximum of $137,400. If the non-applicant’s half of the assets is under $27,480 then 100 percent of the assets, up to $27,480 can be retained by the non-applicant.
In addition, the “Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance,” or “MMMNA” allows the community spouse to keep part of the institutionalized spouse’s income if the community spouse has a low monthly income. In New Hampshire, the community spouse can keep part of the institutionalized spouse’s income if the community spouse has an income of less than $2,288.75 per month. The maximum amount a community spouse may keep is $3,435 per month.
Contact New Hampshire Medicaid Planning Attorneys
For more information, please join us for an upcoming FREE seminar. If you have additional questions about Medicaid planning, contactthe New Hampshire Medicaid planning attorneys at DeBruyckere Law Offices by calling (603) 894-4141 or (978) 969-0331 to schedule an appointment.
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