Medicaid is a state-administered federal program intended to provide assisted living facilities for elderly persons who can no longer live on their own.
It is intended as a safety net for those who run out of assets before they pass away. Consequently, many states β including Idaho β make it almost impossible to retain substantial assets while also receiving Medicaid benefits. And this is as it should be. As taxpayers, all of us should expect our government to be frugal in deciding who is really in such need that the state should step in and protect and care for them.
Determination of Medicaid Benefits: To screen applicants for Medicaid benefits, the state asks for certain financial information. First, it wants to know what assets a person has available to pay for his or her own necessities.
A person who has resources available will be expected to use up most of those assets before beginning to receive Medicaid assistance. Second, the state will ask about any assets that the applicant has given away or sold for less than they were worth during the last five years.
Even if an applicant currently owns no assets, property given away during that five-year window will be attributed to them for purposes of calculating their entitlement to benefits. Then the state will begin covering the cost of the assistance from that point forward. The gift is not viewed as disqualifying for benefits. It just postpones the date upon which the state begins actually paying the benefits. The Medicaid Lien will allow the state to recover all Medicaid benefits paid for the owner during the last five years before he or she passed away.
