Example: We had a very good round oak table with a leaf that seated from 4 to 6 people plus the four chairs that went with it. The family had young children and the hubby and I no need for such heavy furniture. So we downsized and gave that set to the young family. Later, we had saved enough money to buy a smaller dining set that was lighter in weight and easy to move for cleaning underneath it. So how are we supposed to know that we don’t have the right to give away something and bless someone else and then 5 years or so later hubby has declined so much from the Alzheimer’s disease and the multiple physical health problems got worse. I can’t take care of him 24/7 because my own health had to take a backseat to him. I very seldom got to sleep because I kept one ear open for him getting up and wandering around at night. Our elderly seniors with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease seem to be the worst type and the fact that hubby is a veteran and the VA turns their back on the veterans when it comes to better health care in their older years. Just because my husband did not see combat in Vietnam, the two years that he and his unit were in Germany and they were on call, they came back with no wounds from IED’s. They came home with all their young lives and the VA spent no money on them through their 20’s, 30’s 40’s and then they hit their 50’s and start needing to use health ins because their bodies are aging. Those veterans, males and females, should have full lifetime health insurance through the VA. Now hubby needs fulltime help 24/7 in a nursing home. Medicaid won’t help because hubby has $82 too much income for the state's Medicaid benefit. Anyone who has under $100 it should be waived for the benefit of an elderly disabled man or woman. It is inhumane to think that our country has gone downhill so much that people are mistreated this way. I have done the math and the nursing home has miscalculated and they have misinterpreted some things. They want $945 monthly as a "copay”. After I pay the rent, utilities, car and ins payment, credit card bills, I won’t be able to buy my medications or food and nonfood groceries. No gas money for the car. No copay money for the doctor visits, nor for clothes. So, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with the way the state of TN calculates for Medicaid help for the most abused generation of all time, our aged parents and grandparents, our spouses?
VA rules are complicated. Get a VA caseworker to make sure you have been given the correct info.
As to the assets, those are yours and your husband's equally. His needing the help of medicaid doesn't take all your money from you.
As others have said, you need a Lawyer who has some experience in Elder Law and in applying for medicaid to help you. I certainly agree with Bridger as well about your getting help to move though all the VA things.
I wish you the best of luck.
Get legal counsel.
I highly doubt that giving away a table & chairs is going to count against you. For one thing, it's not tangible, in the same way money is. The table was essentially 'worthless'--not really, but the Medicaid people aren't going to make you acccount for all the things you may have given away or even sold--unless it's of fairly great value--like a newer car, or a house. "Stuff'--holy cow, if we have to hang on to all our junk so Medicaid can't ding us, I'd go crazy.
Find a good elder attorney and bug them with these questions. My son is an atty and I have had a lot of good laughs over questions I've asked him, which turned out, in every sense, to be pretty ridiculous. But I've never retired before and I want to do it right.
Someone has never read a history book. Your poor financial decisions does not equal being abused.
I too think you need to see a lawyer well versed in Medicaid. Medicaid allows assets to be split. Your husbands portion would be spent down for his care and then Medicaid applied for. U can remain in the home, have a car and enough income to live on. A lawyer can help you set up a "Miller Trust" (maybe a different name in your State) where that $82 goes into the trust and when ur DH passes, the trust reverts back to Medicaid.
Medicaid for all states has a standard copay for an individual of almost all their monthly income less a small PNA personal needs allowance of $ 50 -$125 for a resident in a facility. His application shows him to have $ 945 copay due.
But his actually is a NH & a community spouse (CS) situation. I’m guessing somehow there an error either in your cost of living determination or that his application got processed incorrectly as an individual for Medicaid.
For couples when 1 is in a facility BUT the other is still living in the community aka “a community spouse” (CS), the CS needs to request a waiver of all or some of his required copay to instead of going to the NH instead goes to CS to enable the CS to maintain their standard of living. It’s called CSRA or MMNA..... think of it kinda like old school alimony. Some states have a fixed amount waived go the CS, while others need the CS to provide in detail documentation as to costs for living and why his copay needs to be waived. Medicaid does NOT expect or require the CS to themselves become impoverished, only NH spouse has to. But it’s on you to make sure a request for a waiver is done and provide whatever documentation needed to have it happen. So was a “waiver” of any of his monthly income requested?
Personally I think the system for NH spouse / CS spouse is complicated as the waiver is just a part of the challenges a CS has to deal with. To know just how to best show that you need his income waived and for couples situations stuff in general finding a CELA level of elder law attorney is the way to go. Your obviously overwhelmed by all this, probably haven’t really rested as you have been dealing with hubs needs now for years. Medicaid doesn’t give a rats butt about table and chairs you got rid of to buy newer ones; Medicaid is concerned about transferring or gifting of significant assets, like a home or a car or change of ownership of life insurance policy with cash value. Transfer of things that have a defined paper trail; like are things in the state database for real property is what Medicaid is concerned about. That you are worried about table & chairs drama & talking about being stationed in Germany from decades ago, to me, shows you are overwhelmed & fixating on things that don’t matter. You need to look at the bigger picture, which is to get info to the state to get a waiver to you of as much of his $945 as possible.
Look at his mo income, if all of it is going to the facility, then I’d suggest that you speak with billing & the SW at the facility to see what you need to do to get a CS waiver happening. If it seems too too daunting for you, then call around to find an elder law atty to help you with this. You want one that is familiar with VA as you want to try to get hubs to get the $90 VA personal needs allowance as well.