Is My Elderly Parent Currently Eligible for Medicaid to Cover Nursing Home Care?
The cost of nursing home care is extremely high in all areas of the United States, and it is particularly expensive in Connecticut and surrounding states. According to data from CareScout, the average cost of just a semi-private room in a Connecticut nursing home in 2024 was over $15,000 per month. For a private room, the cost was more than $16,500. Annually, those costs total between $180,000 and about $199,000 per year. Costs also increase annually, which means 2025 rates are likely even higher and that the prices will continue to climb. If you are currently caring for an elderly parent who likely requires care in a nursing home, you may be concerned with costs.
You may know that you and your spouse or partner cannot afford the costs, and you might also know that your elderly parent barely has enough — or simply does not have even close to enough — saved to cover an extended stay in a nursing home. The key question you should now be asking yourself is: Is my elderly parent currently eligible for Medicaid to cover nursing home care? Our Canton elder law attorneys can explain in more detail.
Medicaid Covers the Cost of Nursing Home Care for Many Elderly Residents
While you might know of Medicaid as a federal program for Americans with limited assets and resources, it is also a primary source of coverage for nursing home care for elderly adults — even those who earned a solidly middle class or upper middle class income during their working years.
Why is Medicaid used to cover nursing home care? Medicare — the federal health care program for elderly adults — does not cover the cost of long-term care, including extended stays in nursing homes. As such, elderly adults must turn to their savings (which can be depleted extremely quickly with the high costs of nursing home care) or another source of coverage. Many turn to Medicaid. Yet in order to be eligible for Medicaid, an elderly adult often must “spend down” their countable resources in order to qualify.
Determining Your Elderly Parent’s Eligibility
What exactly does “spending down” mean, and how can you determine if your elderly parent is currently eligible for Medicaid? The best way to determine Medicaid eligibility for long-term care is by working with an elder law attorney in Connecticut. We can help your elderly parent to determine options for qualifying for Medicaid for long-term care without having to put all of their savings toward nursing home payments before becoming Medicaid eligible. In the meantime, however, the following information is important to know.
For a single elderly adult in Connecticut to qualify for Medicaid for long-term care, they must have an income that is less than the cost of the nursing home and an asset limit of $1,600. When an elderly person is married and both spouses are applying for Medicaid coverage, the asset limit doubles to $3,200. In order to qualify, an elderly person must “spend down” additional countable assets.
To be clear, that asset limit above refers to countable assets and does not include non-countable assets. The asset limit might seem extremely low, especially if your elderly parent has been saving for their entire life, but there are multiple ways to “spend down” countable assets without actually losing all resources.
Contact a Canton Elder Law Attorney for Assistance
To find out more about “spending down” so that your elderly parent can become eligible for Medicaid without spending a lifetime of savings on nursing home costs, you should get in touch with an experienced Canton elder lawyer at the Law Office of Brian S. Karpe today.
Sources:
carescout.com/cost-of-care
portal.ct.gov/husky/how-to-qualify
