A little over a year ago, my 92 year old mother gifted my 2 adult children $10,000 each. Shortly after that, she had a stroke and has been in a care home ever since. In the next few months, we will be applying for Medicad for her care home costs. Will medicaid be ok with the gifting of the $20,000?
The medicaid looks at it is this: if you gave away or sold cash, property (real estate or vehicles) or assets with significant value (jewelry), then you should be able to afford to pay for your care. They are taking over the cost of your mother's care, so they will want to know why she can't pay for it herself and will want proof of her income, value of her assets, and a list of any assets she has divested over the past few years. In some cases, they will look back 5 years.
I would discuss this matter with an elder law attorney to be sure you are doing the right thing for Mom - if she has significant assets, she will need to be careful how they are used to avoid being disqualified for Medicaid. You are allowed 1 vehicle, 1 home (your primary residence) and $2000 a month in assets - that's it. Anything else has to be spent down before Medicaid will kick in and cover anything - so if your mom, for example, has $8,000 a month in assets or income, $6000 of that will have to be spent down - and you will have to provide proof of the spend down - before Medicaid will do anything at all.