Once you have a certain amount of money in your accounts, you become eligible to pay all your own healthcare costs.
If you can show that you only have a low amount of funds, you may be entitled to free healthcare via the Medicaid system. It exists to help people without enough savings still receive the medical attention they need.
While that is a great idea, problems can arise if you fall ill when you have more than the allowed amount of savings. Watching Medicaid take away everything you hoped to pass on to your family will be upsetting, and with the high cost of healthcare, it may not take long to do so.
To protect your money, you need to get rid of it now
You do not need to go out and spend it. What you need to do is move it out of your estate. Why now? Because Medicaid operates a 60-month look-back period in Nevada. If you need to claim healthcare under them, they will check your financial movements for the past 60 months. If they see you transferred assets to family members within that time, they retain the right to go after that money to cover your bills.
As you cannot predict when you might need treatment, it pays to transfer assets early to protect them. There are several options. You can transfer them directly to people or move them into a trust.
Understanding more about protecting your assets from Medicaid could be key to an effective estate plan that looks after you and your family.