Today I want to talk just a minute about Supplemental Health Insurance of the applicant when in the Medicaid context. 

If we have an applicant that is applying for Medicaid, that individual is going to be allowed to keep from his or her income, enough money to pay for the supplemental health insurance of that individual.  Now why would we do that? 

Well the reason that the state of Pennsylvania allows this is because the State wants to be a payer of last resort, and the State wants you to continue any of your health insurance premiums that are occurring so that they know they are not going to have to be first in line to pay for the health care insurance.  They will allow the applicant to use the applicant’s money to pay for the supplemental health insurance of the individual who is in the nursing home.  

This also applies in a married context that we can still pay for the Institutionalized Spouse’s health care insurance.   Now, notice I said the health insurance of the Institutionalized Spouse can be paid from the income of the Institutionalized Spouse.   So, you can’t take that income from the I.S. and pay the community spouse’s health insurance. 

But we can pay for the applicant’s health care insurance premiums and will continue that supplemental health insurance because we want to make sure that continues through the Medicaid process. 

We hope this helped provide an understanding of Supplemental Health Insurance.  If you have any questions about this topic or any other estate planning or asset protection planning when it comes to your family, feel free to contact us by clicking here.