My mother in law is getting ready to go into the nursing home. She currently has Aetna and Medicare. Once that is exhausted she will go to Medicaid. She is wanting to give her two remaining children financial gifts for their upcoming birthdays (February and June), is there a limited amount that she can give them? We want to ensure we do everything correctly. She is not rich by no means but does have a few thousand dollars after we have prepaid her funeral expenses.
What did she give them for their birthdays last year?
Once Mom-in-law goes from Rehab into the Nursing Home, then she will be "self-pay", and the average cost is $10k-15k per month. That a big bite out of savings/investments. Once that runs out, then Medicaid will kick in but the application process needs to start before the self-pay runs out.
Medicaid will look back into Mom-in-law financials to see if she had gifted any money within the past couple of years, in some States they go back 5 years. Any financial gifts given will be subtracted from her care. Note, Medicaid is funded by the taxpayers.