42 msfocusmagazine.org applied to Medicaid-enhanced powers of attorney documents, wills, trusts, and other Medicaid-compliant documents. Medicaidplanningrequiresspecificlanguage in common documents.You mayalreadyhave a power of attorney and a will. Some even have already established a living trust. Those documentsaretypicallywell-drafted.Whatmay be missing is Medicaid planning language that contains authority to carry off the techniques that protect your assets. Medicaid planning is legal, but is it ethical? Unfortunately in our government today, we have healthcare coverage discrimination by disease. Warren Buffet can get his triple by-pass paid for by Medicare, but firemen and teachers with MS who need long-term care may go broke using their life-savings to pay nursing home costs before Medicaid will help. Both Medicare and Medicaid are funded bytaxes.Whyfavorheartattacksforbillionaires? Consider this: Should a person who spent all their money on travel, fancy clothes, and restaurants, then gets sick, be approved for Medicaid immediately because of a lack of savings, while another who saves to ensure comfort and safety in their later years is told “spend your life-savings on care” before Medicaid will help? Is planning ethical? You decide what’s right for you. What about the quality of care? More than 95 percent of all nursing homes participate in Medicaid. In fact, they depend on Medicaid as much as doctors depend on patients paying with some form of health insurance.Someoftheveryfinestnursinghomes participate, and it is illegal to discriminate on qualityof care.The healthcare aides and nurses don’t know who pays privately and who gets Medicaid. Remember planning protects assets so you can cover your basic care with Medicaid, then upgrade your care from your sheltered savings. While assisted living communities are more limited in participation, the trend is increasing and Medicaid home health may be brought into a non-Medicaid assisted or independent living community. What if the Medicaid rules change? Historically, the arrangements you plan ahead for will be “grandfathered in” with protection from reforms to the law. Since Medicaid was passed in 1965, changes have been enacted going forward only. And while your location can matter, if needed, your plan can be designed to include strategies to work in more than one state. In short, with the population’s age exploding, it’s hard to see Medicaid going away: maybe itwill be renamed and reformed, but gone? Highly unlikely. Because there are no guarantees with your health, public entitlements, or long-term care insurance, aren’t you better off stacking the odds in your favor that one or more of these solutions will be there if you plan for as many as is reasonably suitable? Remember, not planning ahead is likely to produce a far worse outcome. Good planning can account for contingencies. Exclusive Content