When my husband entered the LTC facility 13 months ago the financial officer advised me to keep his supplemental policy explaining that if he were to need hospitalization (her example was a broken hip) that medicare would pay for that and he would need the supplemental to pay the 20%. But tonight a friend suggested that medicaid would pick up what medicare would not cover and I need not maintain his supplemental. If she is correct that is over $2,500. that I could have better spent.
Not only is emotional journey very difficult, but getting answers on how the system actually works and the financial aspects of it is horrifying. I actually had a state worker request over 30 financial documents from me and when I asked about the determination he complained about the amount of paperwork I sent!
They do ask for 5 years of financials, including tax returns, bank statements with cancelled check images (all of them) and proof of investments.
Hopefully you did not gift anything to your kids in the last 5 years.