Planning for long-term care and nursing homes is challenging. Sometimes we may miss the warning signs that a loved one needs help until it’s too late. Below, we’ll discuss what to look out for so you aren't caught unaware and can plan for Medi-Cal if needed.

One of the biggest issues that we confront is when do we want to start thinking about Medi-Cal? In other words. When is it appropriate? When should we get started? What are the things we need to notice?

Change in Behavior

This is particularly helpful if you, as a child, need help taking care of a parent What do you need to look out for? The first question is, what do you notice when things are changing at home in terms of behavior? One of the biggest issues we come across is, is who is going to notice a person needs help? The parents themselves are not going to notice they are declining in terms of their cognitive ability or their physical ability to take care of things. You as a child are going to be the first person that notices something is not quite right. When it comes down to who's approaching us about this conversation, it's usually the children.

No Involvement from Children

One of our big issues is when the parents themselves come in to see us and start talking about long-term care. It's not unnatural for a well spouse to talk to us about their ill spouse, however, it really boils down to where are the children? When the parents walk in and start talking to us, one of the first questions we always ask is, where are your children? This is because it’s usually the children that are having the concerns way before the actual ill spouse, let alone even the well spouse, noticing that something's not quite right.

Mental and Physical Decline

The next big question that arises is when should we start worrying about this? It’s children who typically ask us, “When should I be concerned about my parents?” Well, it really boils down to watching their behavior. Keep in mind, the normal process that we're going to go through is their cognitive decline. Are you noticing things that are not quite the same as what they used to be in terms of their functioning and making decisions?

There is also the matter of a physical decline. That's something that we all can notice. This is not limited to simply the ability to move around, but are they just not willing to have a shower every day? Are they getting dressed like normal every single day? Are they getting out of the house every single day and doing normal things like yard work or going to the grocery store on a timely basis? These are things that as we get older, they tend to fall by the wayside.

Long-Term Care Options

Those are the beginning stages of thinking that maybe we should investigate long term care concerns. With that, what are your long-term care options?

Option 1 – Do Noting & Privately Pay

The first thing that you can do is nothing. If you do nothing to solve this issue of long-term care, you are going to be privately paying. While some people may be able to, or even want to privately pay, doing so will be very expensive. Expect to be paying around $8,000 to $12,000 per month, depending on the neighborhood. Of course, the higher end neighborhoods are going to have higher costs compared to the lower end neighborhoods.

Option 2 – Long-Term Care Insurance

The other option is long-term care insurance. However, long-term care insurance carries the same drawback as privately pay – it is expensive. We will often find that our clients who do have long-term care insurance run into two issues. The first is right before they need it, they cancel the policy because the premiums are getting so high, they cannot afford it. Thus, all the money spent previously on those premium insurances is just out the window.

The second big issue with long-term care insurance is it may not be enough. When it finally gets down to it, perhaps the long-term care insurance policy will only pay approximately $4,000 a month, yet you need $8,000 a month. Essentially, the actual medical costs outpaced the expected cost, and thus the big policy being paid into wasn’t big enough. However, there is still a silver lining here. The good news is that even though you do have that long term care insurance that does not quite pay the full bill, Medi-Cal can be achieved and pay the remaining amount.

Option 3 – Keep Parent at Home

A third option is to keep that parent at home. Now, we know everybody that comes in and sees us wants to keep their parent at home. They want to make the effort to take care of them. However, our experience after 30 years of doing this is it’s not a good choice. It's very, very difficult to take care of an aging parent.

It's not so much taking care of them every day, but everything in your household is affected. The utility bills go up. Electricity is going to be on all the time, specifically with air conditioning and heating. Your TV is going to be on 24/7. There are other issues, too, in terms of water usage. Again, everything goes up. Thus, before you attempt the noble effort of trying to take care of that parent, we think what you should do is go to option four, which is the Medi-Cal.

Option 4 – Qualify for Medi-Cal and Save the Estate

Lastly, you can always apply for Medi-Cal. In fact, that's what we do. Medi-Cal can be used to pay for long-term care without having to spend down the ill person’s estate and thus wipe out any generational wealth your family has worked hard to build. Please remember the warning signs discussed so that you notice it is time to speak with us on a free consultation. We will be happy to go over this issue, so the family now has a roadmap as to exactly what needs to be done to get that long term care Medi-Cal to pay for it.

Our next posts will be on what you need to do before qualifying for Medi-Cal, the problems affecting Medi-Cal qualification, before being capped off by a detailed overview of the entire Medi-Cal process and all the legal requirements that accompany such. Be sure to subscribe to our Newsletter or our YouTube channel to stay up to date.