Medicare or Medicaid? Which of These Will Fund One’s Alzheimer’s Care?

Are you aware of the differences between Medicare and Medicaid? For ANY senior it is vital to know the difference. Your future may depend on it, especially when thinking about the latest stats concerning Alzheimer’s disease as well as other incurable, long-term care conditions.

Based on the World Alzheimer Report 2010, Alzheimer’s Disease is affecting a large number of people across the world – not forgetting on individual households and their life savings. Without an apparent solution or options for this conditions in terms of a cure, will this situation get any better?

Dr. Daisy Acosta of Alzheimer’s Disease International reports, “This is a wake-up call that Alzheimer’s disease along with other dementias are the single most important health and social crisis of the Twenty-first century.”

Reports provide that dementia is increasing steadliy, and within the United States almost half the senior citizens over age 80 have this unfortunate condition. For additional information regarding details on how you can improve your abilities as a carer much better today, study our free Alzheimer’s Resource Guide, or call our office for options regarding how to pay for care.

How does this pertain to Medicaid and Medicare?

Medicare provides healthcare benefits for those over 65, the blind, as well as the handicapped; while Medicaid provides medical benefits for the poor.

It’s their main source of health benefit funding. Many seniors do not realize that Medicare does not pay for long-term care. Actually, it is excluded! The confusion is easy to comprehend because Medicare does pay for rehabilitation. So, if a senior citizen is enrolled in the traditional Medicare plan and is hospitalized for a stay of at least three days, and is then admitted into a skilled nursing facility, Medicare may pay – for a short while. But once those Medicare benefits hit 100 consecutive days, that is the maximum.

Often times, Medicare may not even pay out for the full 100 days. There ought to be a noticeable improvement in your state, or else Medicare may well determine that a longer term approach for care is in order, and they might cease paying benefits. Due to the fact that Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s have no immediate solution in current times, rehabilitation is not possible, so Medicare will not likely pay for nursing home care should you have Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

Unlike Medicare, Medicaid will pay for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or dementia-related diseases or a drop in functioning as a result of ageing. You have to, however, deplete every one of your resources (in addition to your wife or husband’s) before you will be eligible, that is unless you take steps to plan ahead to avoid nursing home poverty.

Medicaid is funded by both the federal and the state but is “managed” on the state level. The federal government handles between fifty to eighty percent in the program costs inside the state, and the state pays the rest. For that reason, rules can differ across states (also within the state itself) rather significantly. Also, the law permits you to make a plan to guard the home, retirement savings and spouse in order that they are not completely financially ruined if you go to a an elderly care facility.

So, as an individual can see, Medicare is health care insurance, and Medicaid is public long-term care protection, but often you will find levels in between that require examination and discussion. For more info ., download our free elder guide The Massachusetts Elder Guide to Medicaid, Nursing Homes and Asset Protection or watch Dennis Sullivan being interviewed about how to stop nursing home poverty on the national talk show, “Ask The Lawyer.”

To find out more about your alternatives, give us a call at (781) 237-2815; (800) 964-4295 (24/7) or sign up online to attend our free Trust, Estate & Asset Protection classes. You should be educated about your specific situation and with that you’ll require some straightforward, legal strategies to protect yourself, your spouse, as well as your life-savings for future years.