The Tax Reduction Act of 2005 has laid down that senior couples must have spent down all their combined assets taken together before the sick spouse can get admitted into a nursing home under the state sponsored Medicaid.
Any transfer of assets made by the couple at less than its fair market price or any such transfer even to a trust, regardless of irrevocability, any time within the last 5 years will disqualify both of them from such benefit. This 5 year look back for any transfer is permitted so that the state exchequer is not unnecessarily depleted of its resources in paying the nursing home bills of an otherwise solvent patient.
(More http://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/
http://www.sdslane.org/nhc.html )
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