Health Care Power of Attorney – Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiving in Kansas City (more…)

Financial Powers of Attorney and Alzheimer’s Caregiving in Kansas City (more…)

How Do You Explain Alzheimer’s Disease to a Child? (more…)

VA Benefits for Long-Term Care and Assisted Living in Kansas City (more…)

I was sitting in my busy law office early one morning last week, when a headline came across the news wire…

“The average cost of nursing home care is now up to $8,000 per month!”

I saw that headline and I shuddered. In the Kansas City area, it’s not quite that bad… but it’s still more than $6,000 per month, and who can afford to pay $72,000 a year for care?

The good news is that there are often resources available to help pay the cost, if you only know where to look. For example, the benefits for a veteran can total nearly $2,000 per month (and for the widowed spouse of a veteran, nearly $1,000 per month). Of course, the key is knowing how to qualify.

In order to qualify, a veteran must show a financial need for the benefit. The financial need is determined by figuring out what your income is for veterans’ purposes.

Roughly speaking, this means taking the gross household income and subtracting from it unreimbursed medical expenses, such as nursing home costs, adult day care, assisted living costs (in many cases), home health care costs, doctors, dentists, prescriptions, and so on. If the household income is low enough, the VA next takes into account financial assets.

In broad terms, a married couple can have up to $80,000 in assets (and a single person $40,000), plus the house.

Here’s a simplified example of how the program can help a veteran with Alzheimer’s disease:

Bill Roberts’ family can no longer care for him at home, so he has moved to an assisted living facility. His income is $1,750 per month, but this does not cover the $4,500 he is paying the assisted living facility.

Rather than deplete their $80,000 in savings and other assets that his wife may one day need for her care, Bill’s family turns to the VA.

After subtracting the cost of the assisted living from his income, Bill has a monthly deficit of roughly $2,750 per month. It’s clear that he will qualify for the maximum benefit of nearly $2,000 per month from the VA, to help pay his bills.

For more information on the VA Aid and Attendance benefit program described here, as well as other sources that might be available to help pay the cost of care, go to http://www.kcelderlaw.com.

Since every case and situation is different, we will provide you a 30-minute FREE consultation to discuss your needs further and determine how we can best serve you.

Sincerely,
Bill

Interesting read from the New York Times on a possible link between Alzheimer’s Disease and Hispanic individuals:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/us/21alzheimers.html

They note that, while Hispanics are not necessarily genetically predisposed to this illness, that they do have an increased number of risk factors including high rates of diabetes, obesity, and stroke. Moreover, financial and language barriers can discourage a family from seeking treatment for a loved one, complicating an already difficult situation.