Why Medicaid Planning is Ethical

I'm Evan H Farr, Certified Elder Law Attorney, and today I'm here to talk to you about why Medicaid planning is ethical. If you or a loved one become a client of the Farr Law Firm, you may rest assured that everything we do is absolutely, unquestionably, 100% legal and ethical. For seniors over the age of 65, Medicaid has become equivalent to federally subsidized long-term care insurance. Just as Medicare is equivalent to federally funded health insurance. Planning ahead to accelerate qualification for Medicaid is no different than maximizing your income tax deductions to minimize your income taxes, or, or planning to reduce your estate taxes through proper estate planning. Done with respect for the law and compassion for the elders that we're protecting, Medicaid planning is not only ethically justified, but it's often imperative to an individual's quality of life. One of the fundamental unfairnesses in our society is that Medicare and private health insurance companies don't cover chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease or other types of brain diseases causing dementia or loss of the ability to function independently. For these types of diseases where the treatment needed is institutionalization in a nursing facility, seniors have to become officially impoverished under federal and state Medicaid rules in order to become eligible for their basic long-term care to be covered by Medicaid. Most seniors naturally look for legal ways to preserve the efforts of their lifetime in order to protect themselves from this unfair and arbitrary social social policy. Medicaid planning is not about cheating or gaming the system. It's about preserving a client's dignity and self-worth in the face of an unfair and arbitrary social policy that discriminates against the wrong types of diseases. The ethical scandal is this arbitrary public policy, not the desire of our seniors to avoid poverty.