Continuing To Think Ahead

Yesterday’s post sparked some discussion and caused me to remember a few things as well. Thanks to Tonya over at Ugly Is The New Pretty I have some more information to share. If you live in the U.S. and your elderly loved one falls within the low income bracket, they may be eligible for a ”Medicaid Waiver”. A waiver can provide for an in home care alternative to nursing home care. Programs and eligibility vary by state. Here’s a link to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But you can get your state’s information by Googling “medicaid waiver” along with the name of your state.

Also, a few months ago I saw a news report about an underused benefit called a “Special Pension with Aid and Attendance Benefit”. If your elderly loved one is a U.S. wartime veteran or the surviving spouse of a wartime veteran, they may be eligible for this Aid and Attendance program. As with the Medicaid Waiver, there are income eligibility requirements. But if the claimant is “incapable of self support and in need of regular personal assistance” and they meet all the eligibility requirements they could receive money toward in home care, assisted living facilities or nursing home care. The Veteran Aid website has lots of useful information about this and other veterans’ benefits. The Veterans Administration has issued a press release about this Aid and Attendance benefit as well.

Both of these programs can help specific groups of elderly receive services in their own homes. If you are currently seeking services, I hope this information and the links help you out. If you don’t need the information right now, you might wish to do what I’ve done. I set up a Bookmark Folder named “Elder Care & Senior Services”. Whenever I learn about something along these lines, I find the relevant websites and add their addresses to the folder.