[Willis3000]

My parents are approaching retirement age, and will soon begin drawing social security. They have no other savings to fall back on, but they do own their home outright. They will be relying on Medicare and Medicaid in the future as it stands now.

They are concerned what would happen if they ever needed long-term care (like a nursing home) which (we believe) could be funded by Medicaid.
They wish to keep their home to pass on to their children, and they are concerned that Medicaid might require them to sell their home. A retirement councelor advised them recently that this might happen, in which case they (my parents) would each receive $20,000 of the proceeds in exchange for Medicaid paying their long term care bills. Is this true, or aren't there laws to protect seniors from this kind of "property seizure"?

If not, they are thinking about transferring title of the house to one of their kids. Would that be an adequate measure to protect their home?

Thanks in advance!
Lewis

[Fr_Chuck]

If your parents go to a nursing home and can not pay the balance of what the home charges, then the nursing home is allowed to come after property that they own.It is common and happens every day that the debtor, ( the nursing home) takes the home in payment for the debts that are owed.But one way to stop it, is for you and the other children to either keep the elderly parents in your home, or for all of you to merely pay the balance of the nursing home fees.I believe the balance of my dads nursing home was about 1400 a month that was not covered.