He recently moved from Florida to Texas and is living in a nursing facility in TX. I'm trying to change Medicaid from FL to TX but facility is saying he has too much money (although he has nothing but a car worth $1.5K that's paid for, life insurance policy that I'm paying for and a bank account of $2K). Why am I cashing in a policy that's in his name but I'm paying for it?
If he is the owner, he has to use the cash value to pay for his care.
For the insurance, the ? Medicaid need to know is ownership of the policy and whether it has any cash value which would be an asset of the owner. So who owns the policy? If you own the policy, then it's not dad's asset and it should not have been listed as his asset. But if he owns the policy, even if you or another kid pays the policy, then it's his asset. If it has a cash value, the cash value has to spent down on his care before Medicaid will pay. If the policy is over a set amount, the state can ask for details on the policy as to beneficiary. If the policy beneficiary is his estate, then you can expect the state to file a claim (this would be a Class 7 claim for TX probate) for the proceeds from the insurance policy to repay the state for his Medicaid costs. This ability is indicated in the Medicaid application as "Acknowledgement of Participation". MERP for TX is now being out-sourced too.