My husband is currently a resident in the NH. I have a life insurance policy for $8,000 which I turned over to the funeral home & have a $5,000 policy with myself as the beneficiary. I have a $10,000 policy on myself with my daughter and son as beneficiaries to pay for my funeral expenses. If I put the funeral home as beneficiary, will they give any money that is not spent to my children? Also, if I go into the NH I will still have to pay the premiums each month for the insurance policies. Will Medicaid allow me enough money to pay for this?
So much to consider!
With Medicaid you can have under $2000 in your account but everything like social security and pension goes to pay the nursing home and Medicaid pays the rest. Medicaid allows you to keep $50 of your social security for necessities. Like with my BIL that $50 he has will pay for his nursing home phone and he has $8 left over for anything else he wants.
And with me being rep payee from my BIL it isn't too good when family members think you are spending his money and he isn't getting a dime of it. Yes I was turned into social security for this last year. I have been his rep payee for 4yrs then this happens. I will be turning everything over to the nursing home so they can pay everything and I won't be turned in again. This is the 3rd time for that side of the family to get me 2 times with DHS which were unfounded. They stoop to a new low this time.
Prayers
Get with the social worker and find out how you get funerals prepaid.
AR seems to allow 40.00 a month for personal needs allowance. This is all the money, besides whatever cash you are allowed after spend down.
Best of luck getting this sorted out.
You would probably have to talk to an elder attorney (or perhaps the funeral home) to find out how the any leftover money from a funeral would be handled so that you do the correct thing with these policies especially since you already set up one funeral with a policy (and I'm not clear if that was your policy or your hubby's).
Even if you get to keep the policies, Medicaid makes you use all your income toward NH and then they pay the extra to cover monthly bill. In Texas $60 is held out and given to the person, all the rest goes to pay your NH bill (when both spouses are in NH care). If the policies don't have any cash value, tell your daughter to pay the premiums...probably a small investment to continue them so there will be some funeral funds.
Really best to talk to an elder atty. Or you could contact legal aid where you live if you cannot afford atty fees.
On this note, I use to work for our State's Medicaid Recovery Program. Our state would rather pay insurance premiums (health) for recipients which was less than paying the full cost of their care. So when it involves Medicaid, ask if that is an option and they may pick up the premiums if they feel it would benefit them in the long run.
As someone else has said, my husband's life insurance premium was waived when he presented documentation of his disability. So there may be a NH waiver.
My suggestion would be to ask your daughter and son if they would be willing to pay the life insurance premiums for you, so they are not burdened with your final expenses.
We are currently doing this for a disabled family member who is in a nursing home. It is not a problem for us to pay the monthly ife insurance premiums, we far prefer that to paying a lump sum for his final expenses.