One of the most common questions I hear is: can Medicaid take my house? There’s no short and complete answer to this question (we are attorneys, right?) but, generally speaking, you can be required to sell your home in order to pay for your long-term care.

To qualify to receive Medicaid long-term care benefits, you have to meet two basic requirements: you must need certain types of long-term care (what most people would consider nursing home care) and you can only have a certain amount of assets ($2,000 as of 2020). If you are married and your spouse is going to continue living in your house, the value of the house (up to a certain amount) does not count as an asset that disqualifies you from Medicaid long-term care benefits. However, if you are unmarried, widowed or your spouse is also in long-term care, the house likely counts as an asset that must be “spent down”, i.e. sold and used to pay for your nursing home stay.

A large part of Medicaid planning is making sure that you can still afford long-term care while protecting what is likely your most valuable and most important possession—your home. Please contact us at Wallace Boggs today to set up an appointment to discuss your needs and how we can help you achieve your goals.