Be sure to look at your state regulations however Life Insurance in general should not affect Medicaid, especially if it is just a term type or non-cash value building policy. The issue with Medicaid of course is how much money do you have and income you have. If you can draw income from your Life Insurance then, it may affect your qualification.
There are two factors determining whether life insurance affects your ability to qualify for Medicaid: your states status on expansion, and whether your life insurance has cash value.
The Affordable Care Act encourages states to expand Medicaid eligibility. The states expanding may no longer have asset based eligibility criteria. If you live in one of these states your life insurance does not matter. The states choosing not to expand may have asset and income criteria. The asset criteria is $2,000 and a cash value life insurance policy may impact eligibility.
Term life insurance does not have cash value and would not be considered an asset. Permanent policies such as universal life and whole life do have cash value and would be considered an asset.
That is a great question! A lot of the answer depends upon where you live, and what kind of policy, and its amount that you have. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) made some of the rules change in the States that opted to include Medicaid expansion. If you are fortunate enough to live in one of those States, you caught a break. If you don't, then Medicaid will consider the cash value in your policy, over a certain amount, and take it. That said, if you have not filed for Medicare/Medicaid yet, there are ways that you can protect yourself. Most will require some lead time, (60 months) but there are ways to do it more quickly if needed. Please contact me, and we can discuss your situation privately. Thanks for asking!
.JPG){kind=avatar}
The Affordable Care Act encourages states to expand Medicaid eligibility. The states expanding may no longer have asset based eligibility criteria. If you live in one of these states your life insurance does not matter. The states choosing not to expand may have asset and income criteria. The asset criteria is $2,000 and a cash value life insurance policy may impact eligibility.
Term life insurance does not have cash value and would not be considered an asset. Permanent policies such as universal life and whole life do have cash value and would be considered an asset.