What ia a Community Spouse?

Community Spouse, Community Spouse Resource Allowance (Minimum and Maximum), Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (Minimum and Maximum), Penalty Divisor, Resource Limit, Exempt and non-Exempt Resources — should you care what these terms are?

Well, if you're part of a married couple and you're concerned about the possible need for nursing home care for you and/or your spouse, you should.

The option for paying for the nursing home are discussed in our previous article “Who will pay for the nursing Home?”

Let's start first with the average monthly cost of nursing home care is approximately $10,000 per month, i.e. $120,000 per year.

To determine eligibility for Medical Assistance, we first have to determine what the couple's resources are. A home, pre-paid funeral ("principal place of residence") and one car are examples of non-countable resources. Everything else they own, either individually or together are countable assets.

The spouse staying at home is entitled, as a "Community Spouse," to keep one-half of the countable assets, minimum of $22,728 and a maximum of $113,640. This is called the "Community Spouse Resource Allowance" and is subject to a minimum of $22,728 and a maximum of $113,640.

The excess amounts are to be used to pay for the nursing home care unless we protect your assets.