McNichol and Tillem - Protecting assets,protecting health

Dear Len & Rosie: I was injured on the job 10 years ago. I cannot get any insurance because of my pre-existing injuries and I have never been able to return to work. I own my own home but I am very concerned about losing it if a major illness were to happen to me. I am a 62-year-old woman, and I am not really in the best of health. Can you give me some help on protecting my home and any cash in the bank? -- Sharon

Dear Sharon: You have several options. It is possible for you to qualify for Medi-Cal benefits by spending down and sheltering your countable assets, which more or less consists of everything except your home, car, some life insurance policies and retirement accounts, and $2,000. If you collect Medi-Cal benefits, then it becomes important to shelter your home from Medi-Cal estate claims. The best means of doing so is usually to transfer the home into an irrevocable trust.

But it may not be a good idea just yet. You are only 62, and you are probably not yet ready to give up control of your property. If your home were held within an irrevocable trust designed to protect it from Medi-Cal, someone other than you would have to be the trustee. Also, you would not be able to borrow against the trust property under most circumstances, and if the property were sold within your lifetime, you would have to pay more capital gains tax than you would if you keep the home in your name or in an ordinary revocable trust.

There are alternatives to Medi-Cal. You will turn 65 in three years, which will allow you to enroll in Medicare, which will take care of most of your medical expenses. You could also get Medicare early if you qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance. But since it takes two years of collecting SSDI benefits to get Medicare, that's probably not an option for you. What you need is something to cover your medical needs until you turn 65.

The answer may be for you to buy insurance through the Major Risk Medical Insurance Program, a state program that provides insurance through companies such as Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente. The cost is fairly low regardless of any pre-existing conditions. Perhaps more importantly, after three years you can transition to ordinary health insurance with your major risk provider and they can't deny you coverage.

You can find additional information about Major Risk Medical Insurance Program on the Internet at www.mrmib.ca.gov, and you can obtain an application by calling (800) 289-6974.

Len Tillem and Rosie McNichol are elder law attorneys. Contact them at 846 Broadway, Sonoma, CA 95476, at 996-4505 or at www.lentillem.com.

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