I currently live with my Grandmother. I've lived with her for many years but her name is the only name on the house, not mine. She has a mortgage of $493. She is considering going into a nursing home or assisted living. The worry is that if she does then my two daughters and I will have to leave our home. Part of her assisted living or nursing home would be paid for by Medicare/medicade, then the rest out of her bank.. would I be able to rent the house from her for the cost of the mortgage and her still be covered in the assisted living/nursing home?
You seem to be too young to understand how Medicare and Medicaid work (I didn't either until I turned 64 and applied for Medicare). My MIL needed Medicaid and that's how I learned about it... the hard way.
Medicaid rules vary by state. This is why you cannot get such important legal advice from a global, anonymous forum where there are no professionals and no accountability. In most states there is a 5 year "look back" period for the financial portion of the application. Take this seriously. Do not co-mingle your finances with hers, do not give any appearance of "gifting" of money between the 2 of you. Stop doing any financial interactions until you talk to a certified elder law attorney.
Also, I'm hoping your Grandmother has assigned a durable PoA for herself? If not, she needs to get this in place asap. The bar for cognitive legal capacity is pretty low and the attorney will privately interview her to make sure she has such capacity and is not being coerced. She needs this legal protection and her family needs a legal means to help manage her affairs.
Medicare really only pays for SNF (skilled nursing facility) care ONLY in certain circumstances, such as post-hospitalization rehab care AND ONLY for a limited number of days. There is no fully paid Medicare Al or SNF benefit.
Medicaid is a totally differnet program which may cover SNF/nursing home care (not many states have an AL benefit), that has a two part test to qualify. First, one needs to meet your State's "medical necessity" definition. That is one just does NOT themselves say they need it, they State makes a determination based on their evaluation. And the second, criteria is the indivudal must meet the income and asset limits (usually, one can have only about $2K in TOTAL assets.)
Yes, in theory the primary home could be excluded for a spouse, but you are not a spouse. And no, she cannot just add you to the Title, as Medicaid has a 5-year look back provision that if one in the last 5 years did anything (transfer/hide assets, put others on the Titles to assets, etc.) then Medicaid will disqualify the person. NOT knowing/making a mistake here is not a defense.
Also, most AL are NOT Medicare or Medicaid qualified facilities. Al generally is private pay and some have memory care, but access to these type of care/facilities is generally totally out of pocket.
Getting real legal advice is imperative here. You and she need to work through w/a qualifed lawyer licensed in your State and develop a plan for how to handle this. Likewise, getting all her legal documents in place (Will, Trust, POA, Advanced Directive) is hugely important!
Yes, an attorney will cost money; but it is really necessary or the house you live in could be in jeopardy.
Good luck with this.
I suggest you make an appointment to talk to someone at Social Services about Medicaid and how that will effect you. You may have to see an Elder Lawyer at some point.