Who is going to pay for your nursing home stay?

It is me, there is no one else. Iwill end on the side of the road i guess.

In my state, Medicaid does provide medical assistance. However, once someone is admitted into a nursing home, they need to get approval through Medicaid for long-term care. These are two different programs under the umbrella of Medicaid (community.......vs long-term care). The first 20 days were covered at 100% because Medicare paid for that. Day 21-100, there is a daily co-pay required to be paid, which is why you have a bill. I worked in a nursing home, and it is a travesty when the nursing home does not educate family on this process. You would need to contact the nursing home, because otherwise you will be liable for the bill. Speak with the billing staff, explain that your mother had Medicaid but you were not assisted with applying for long-term care approval. (Which is what the nursing home should have done to walk you through the process). If your mother was approved for Medicaid BEFORE the nursing home stay, then the nursing home should help you get this taken care of.

I have to use Medicaid. I know what nursing homes cost but there are other types of adult care homes unless you really are quite ill. I hope to be in Assisted Living but I still need Medicaid because I don't have the $2000 a month for that either.

My plan is to enter a senior retirement complex when I am no longer able to live independently and maintain my own home. My preference is the local one operated by the Methodists. You start with independent living in a patio home, go to assisted living in an apartment, then on to the nursing home section when needed. I've looked into the cost and know I can pay for it by selling my home.

All of this planning is if I happen to outlive my husband. He wants to live at home until his dying day. So I may have to deal with in-home health care costs. That's where I do not have a plan.

our savings.but i doubt we will need a nursing home stay.both my husband and i come from sudden cardiac/aneurysm death families-all of his and all of my grandparents and gr8 grandparents,just keeled over and died on their appointed days,of heart attacks or aneurysms.no lingering,one minute ur here,the next ur not.incedentally all of my grandparents and gr8 grandparents,lived in their own homes,drove,had all their marbles and cared for themselves till the day they died.they lived between 83 and 99 at the time of death.no member of my nuclear or extended family has ever needed a nursing home or even an extended hospital stay.they just suddenly die.ive always considered that a blessing and if genetics counts,i will probably die in my 80's or 90's,very suddenly at my home.u seem to think everyone must go to a nursing home someday,but in some families,that is not the case.my parents are still alive,in their 80's,live unassisted in their own home.dad takes a daily b/p pill.mom takes no pills at all,for anything!i doubt they will need a nursing home either.if they do,they downsized their house 3 years ago,and have money from the sale in addition to their savings.

My husband and I are leaving the US some time this year and moving overseas where we can still afford to purchase our own health care and insurance.

the system is different where we are moving, they actually seem to care for seniors.

I remember when my mother-in-law turned 80. She still lived in her own home with some help from my husband and I during 6 months of visiting her a year and her other children helping out when we returned to the states for work.

The doctor would come to her home every month or more often if needed to do a check up on her in the comfort of her own bed and wouldn't make her come into the office unless it was really needed.

They would send a driver out to pick her up and take her into the hospital for lab tests ect. if she needed them and then take her home.

The small town she lived in brought her flowers, a cake and a few bags of groceries on her 80th birthday.

This was in Hungary where I still believe people care about the weak and fragile of their society.

Social Security does NOT pay for nursing home care. Medicaid does but takes your SS money in return as payment. I have too much income to qualify for Medicaid nursing home care so I guess that my savings,pension, and SS check will be used. I don't expect the taxpayers to finance the end of my life any more than I expected them to support me when I was younger.

How can anybody at that age even begin to pay off a bill like that??? In these times, not many have a spare dime. If the price of heath ins. would go down I would have more to save.

My dad died in his sleep it was a good end. You can be sure you won't pay if I end up in a nursing home. I have no savings to hide.

Your stats are off, most people that go to a nursing home are gone within a year--my mom made it 2 years and her way was paid for not by the masses but by every dime of her social security.

I will never end up in a nursing home or anywhere else than my own home. All care and needed attention will be provided by my current household staff, and they in turn will be taken care of by my estate. And no I am not wealthy, just hopefully a good planner for future needs.

If my husband and/or I ever need nursing home care, we have a combination of insurance, savings, and assets we can sell to pay for such care.

You included costs of nursing home care in your details, but not how many people actually end up in nursing homes. The need for long term care, including nursing homes, can happen at any age; but the risk goes up as we age. Far less than half of people over age 85 stay in nursing homes; so not everybody will need this type of care.

My husband and I are aware of several types of care and assistance available. Home Health Care, local programs for people who need assistance with daily activities, respite care, rehabilitation (residential and outpatient), Hospice, are some of the options. A combination of insurance, our savings, our pensions, and even some tax and privately funded options are available and we will likely use them all. Going to a nursing home is a potential not a given.

Our parents are still living; they range in age from 75 to 84 years old. None of them live in a nursing home. This doesn't mean that they will never need to go to a nursing home; but with so many other options it looks unlikely to me that any of them will need to be in a nursing home, possible yes,

You asked: "do you expect to die in your sleep?" Maybe, I might die in my sleep in my own bed. Or I might drop dead from a sudden cardiac arrest while out and about. I might die in a hospital. I might have a terminal illness that I'm aware of, and so use Hospice. I do not understand; are you saying that people should plan for the possibility that long term care in a nursing home might be needed (which I agree with), or are you suggesting that everyone ends up in a nursing home (which I completely disagree with)?

"The likelihood of being in a nursing home also rose with age, from less than 1 percent for those aged 65 to 69 to more than 43 percent of those aged 95 or older. Most persons of all ages received their care in the community. Only persons aged 95 or older appear to have been more likely to be receiving care in a nursing home than in the community, but the difference is not statistically significant."

~ "The Characteristics of Long-term Care Users ,Characteristics of Elderly Long-term Care Users", Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Report,By William D. Spector, Ph.D., and John A. Fleishman, Ph.D., Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ); Liliana E. Pezzin, Ph.D., Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University; Brenda C. Spillman, Ph.D., Urban Institute. Publication No. 00-0049, January 2001

http://www.ahrq.gov/research/ltcusers/

For every 1000 people age 85 or over, between 138 and 139 were in Nursing Homes in 2004

Nursing Home Residents: US, 1977-2004

http://205.207.175.93/HDI/TableViewer/tableView.as...

National Nursing Home Survey: 2004 Overview

CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_13/sr13_167...