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Buying a house on Medicaid ?
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amother
OP


 

Post Sun, Oct 03 2021, 8:52 pm
Hi, this question is not relevant for now, but I'm inquiring for future plans. If I have enough money to put a down payment, yet my income remains low may I buy a house while on Medicaid ? Is one allowed to own a house and at the same time be receiving gov. assistance ?
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Sunny Days




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 03 2021, 8:53 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Hi, this question is not relevant for now, but I'm inquiring for future plans. If I have enough money to put a down payment, yet my income remains low may I buy a house while on Medicaid ? Is one allowed to own a house and at the same time be receiving gov. assistance ?

In short yes
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amother
Vermilion


 

Post Sun, Oct 03 2021, 9:07 pm
Sure. Getting approved for a mortgage may be difficult if you have a low income but there is nothing illegal about owning a home and receiving assistance at the same time.
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amother
OP


 

Post Sun, Oct 03 2021, 9:13 pm
Are there any complications on the way that might come up that I should be aware of ?
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Smile1234




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 03 2021, 9:50 pm
Start off by getting a preapproval from a mortgage broker to or banker to see how much money you’ll be approved to borrow based on your income. Being on Medicaid doesn’t affect your eligibility for a mortgage, but low income might not allow you to borrow as much as you’ll need for the size home you want.
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amother
OP


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 8:26 am
Anyone here have any link to what are the Medicaid income limits for number of people in household ?
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amother
DarkOrange


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 8:35 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Anyone here have any link to what are the Medicaid income limits for number of people in household ?

I don’t know this information, but as per the social worker I share an office with, typically most cervices are based on a certain times the federal poverty level for family size. Should be easy to Google.
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amother
Cadetblue


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 9:39 am
Income limits also depends on which state you live in.

Google your state and income limits for medicaid. In NY you can also have an "essential" plan for which you can earn more and pay a really nominal fee (20.00 per month).

Regarding owning a house - assets become an issue after the age of 65. Over that age you can't own one and have medicaid. I doubt you're close to that age just making you aware.
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amother
OP


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 9:45 am
amother [ Cadetblue ] wrote:
Income limits also depends on which state you live in.

Google your state and income limits for medicaid. In NY you can also have an "essential" plan for which you can earn more and pay a really nominal fee (20.00 per month).

Regarding owning a house - assets become an issue after the age of 65. Over that age you can't own one and have medicaid. I doubt you're close to that age just making you aware.
Thanks a lot, really helpful. I never knew of this "essential plan". I am not close to 65 but am just wondering why rules change at that age. Does it have to do with medicare ? And Btw yes I do live in ny.
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amother
Antiquewhite


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 10:00 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Anyone here have any link to what are the Medicaid income limits for number of people in household ?

Yes. How many people are in your household?
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amother
Holly


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 10:22 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Thanks a lot, really helpful. I never knew of this "essential plan". I am not close to 65 but am just wondering why rules change at that age. Does it have to do with medicare ? And Btw yes I do live in ny.


https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/1637

Your issue, as in the other thread where the OP received food stamps, is that the income requirements for government assistance are not likely to give you the income to afford a home. For example, if you had the maximum income for a family of 8 in NY to receive Medicaid (abt $60,000), and $100,000 down payment, you could get a mortgage of about $280,000 in NY.
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amother
OP


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 11:50 am
amother [ Holly ] wrote:
https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/1637

Your issue, as in the other thread where the OP received food stamps, is that the income requirements for government assistance are not likely to give you the income to afford a home. For example, if you had the maximum income for a family of 8 in NY to receive Medicaid (abt $60,000), and $100,000 down payment, you could get a mortgage of about $280,000 in NY.
Even with the "essential plan" ?
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amother
OP


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 11:59 am
Also (assuming this is allowed) I was wondering if one could get a good paying job, get a mortgage, and after many years of paying off a nice percentage of the house mortgage go back to a lower income (with a normal plan of still paying off mortgage), and receive Medicaid ? Or is this not allowed ? I see that some have replied that you can own a house on Medicaid, and someone posted not after 65 ? Like I said originally this is not relevant at the moment now.
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amother
Holly


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 12:05 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Even with the "essential plan" ?


NY's "essential plan" is for people who don't qualify for Medicaid because of household income.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ochi......page

Again, the question is how much money you make. No one whose income qualifies for government assistance is going to qualify for a $600,000 mortgage. Government assistance is intended to help those who lack the income to provide basic services (food, medical care housing) for themselves.
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amother
Holly


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 12:44 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Also (assuming this is allowed) I was wondering if one could get a good paying job, get a mortgage, and after many years of paying off a nice percentage of the house mortgage go back to a lower income (with a normal plan of still paying off mortgage), and receive Medicaid ? Or is this not allowed ? I see that some have replied that you can own a house on Medicaid, and someone posted not after 65 ? Like I said originally this is not relevant at the moment now.


Of course you can, but banks calculate the income you need to pay a mortgage based on their understanding of what you actually do need to pay your expenses, including the mortgage. If you cannot make payments, there will be a foreclosure.

Using my example of a $600,000 mortgage from above, the monthly payment is $2900 per month, plus real estate taxes. Assuming a very modest $1000 a month in real estate taxes, that's nearly $4000 a month just for your home. Again, NY's limit for Medicaid for a family of 8 is a little under $60,000 a year. So a family would need to live -- tuition, food, clothing, transportation -- on $1000 a month to make that work.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 1:17 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Also (assuming this is allowed) I was wondering if one could get a good paying job, get a mortgage, and after many years of paying off a nice percentage of the house mortgage go back to a lower income (with a normal plan of still paying off mortgage), and receive Medicaid ? Or is this not allowed ? I see that some have replied that you can own a house on Medicaid, and someone posted not after 65 ? Like I said originally this is not relevant at the moment now.


You are posting the improbable. If someone has a high paying position they generally don't decide to quit in order to qualify for government assistance. I guess there are unusual people who decide to do a complete life change but in general most people would prefer to earn enough so that they can lead a comfortable life style. But in general unless something terrible happens (loss of job; death without life insurance; debilitating illness), most people with high salaries do not voluntarily decided to make a lower salary because the benefits are no longer worth it to them versus what they are earning.

Isn't that the reason why most people decide to go for a long term solution - e.g. many times people write that if they take a promotion they will earn a bit more than what qualifies for benefits. However, they decide to take the short term financial hit because in a few years they will be rising in their career and no longer have to worry about government assistance.

Because of the simple math, it is unlikely that anyone living in an area where housing is expensive would have an income that is low enough for Medicaid and high enough to qualify for a mortgage. Perhaps in a very low cost area where you can buy a house cheaply - go to areas in Broome County for example and there are respectable homes for $150,000. Also many low cost areas do not have expanded Medicaid so the issue of Medicaid eligibility is moot anyway.

As others have posted, if you have Medicaid after 65, you are not permitted to have more than a small amount of assets and only a relatively small amount reserved for a surviving spouse. My understanding is that they don't kick you out of the house or make you sell it but that the government collects when the house is sold. For the most part it really isn't a factor since most people are covered for medical expenses through Medicare after 65 and so the major expense would be if someone has to go into a nursing home.
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groovy1224




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 1:48 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Also (assuming this is allowed) I was wondering if one could get a good paying job, get a mortgage, and after many years of paying off a nice percentage of the house mortgage go back to a lower income (with a normal plan of still paying off mortgage), and receive Medicaid ? Or is this not allowed ? I see that some have replied that you can own a house on Medicaid, and someone posted not after 65 ? Like I said originally this is not relevant at the moment now.


I mean, in theory, this is supposedly possible, but not practically.

First of all, it's important to understand how mortgages work. Say you took out a $500,000 mortgage, and your payments are $2,000 a month. (forget taxes and insurance for a minute). It's not like after your first month, your loan balance is $498,000 and then $496,000 etc etc. In the early years of your loan, it will be something like $1,8000 interest and $200 towards your loan balance. So after 10 years, you still have the bulk of your loan to pay off. And that's assuming in those 10 years your didn't refinance, which many people do to pull out money to pay for renovations or simchas.

Second of all, it's not really so simple to just decrease your income. You get used to having it, and your expenses will creep up accordingly. (You used to get shoes at walmart, but now you get them at the local store. And now your kids would just *die* before they'd be seen in the Walmart shoes). It would be quite a wrench to cut your income down like that.
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amother
Aquamarine


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 3:22 pm
Didnt read all the answers so not sure if the below was already mentioned:

1. You can buy/own a house on Medicaid, yes

2. There are limits to how much you are allowed to spend and what your equity can be (depends on state but I believe it starts somewhere around 600k)

3. It must be your permanent residence, cannot generate income, and must be in the same state where you have Medicaid

4. The way Medicaid works is based off of a households income as well as their "countable" assets. There are stringent limits on the amount of assets you are allowed to have, both liquid (like cash/savings) and non-liquid (like a car, besides your first one which isnt countable). I believe the max allowance for liquid assets in NY is somewhere around 2k. The overall allowance for all assets is somewhere around 15-16k. That being said, it is possible that if you bought a house with a significant down payment and the government found that out, they could remove your benefits since you were not allowed to have so much in savings

5. In regards to a mortgage- banks will only approve a mortgage based off of your income amount. So if it is low enough to receive Medicaid, its not likely you'll get approved for any substantial amount. Your first step would be to speak to a mortgage broker and get a pre-approval, so you can know what your price range is. Banks look at your income and your expenses, since they want to make sure you can handle the mortgage payments, to determine how much to give you

6. I did notice someone mentioned about not owning a home at age 65+, but this is false. As long as it is your permanent residence (or you plan to return there if you live in a facility) or have immediate family members living in it, there are no issues with it. Though something to keep in mind: If you are 65+ and using medicaid to pay for long term care, then they would seek reimbursement after you passed away. Since most people dont have any real assets (if they qualify for medicaid), the only time this would really effect anything is if you owned a home before your passing. Medicaid would be able to place a lien on the house and use that to reimburse the costs. It would be possible to avoid this by giving the house to someone else while you were still living, but it can get tricky and needs to handled in a certain way (which an estate lawyer can help with).
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amother
Green


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 4:14 pm
I'll tell you what we did. It may not be practical but we saved up with our lower income enough of a down payment over many years that our mortgage was lower and approved.
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amother
Cadetblue


 

Post Mon, Oct 04 2021, 4:54 pm
amother [ Aquamarine ] wrote:
Didnt read all the answers so not sure if the below was already mentioned:

1. You can buy/own a house on Medicaid, yes

2. There are limits to how much you are allowed to spend and what your equity can be (depends on state but I believe it starts somewhere around 600k)

3. It must be your permanent residence, cannot generate income, and must be in the same state where you have Medicaid

4. The way Medicaid works is based off of a households income as well as their "countable" assets. There are stringent limits on the amount of assets you are allowed to have, both liquid (like cash/savings) and non-liquid (like a car, besides your first one which isnt countable). I believe the max allowance for liquid assets in NY is somewhere around 2k. The overall allowance for all assets is somewhere around 15-16k. That being said, it is possible that if you bought a house with a significant down payment and the government found that out, they could remove your benefits since you were not allowed to have so much in savings

5. In regards to a mortgage- banks will only approve a mortgage based off of your income amount. So if it is low enough to receive Medicaid, its not likely you'll get approved for any substantial amount. Your first step would be to speak to a mortgage broker and get a pre-approval, so you can know what your price range is. Banks look at your income and your expenses, since they want to make sure you can handle the mortgage payments, to determine how much to give you

6. I did notice someone mentioned about not owning a home at age 65+, but this is false. As long as it is your permanent residence (or you plan to return there if you live in a facility) or have immediate family members living in it, there are no issues with it. Though something to keep in mind: If you are 65+ and using medicaid to pay for long term care, then they would seek reimbursement after you passed away. Since most people dont have any real assets (if they qualify for medicaid), the only time this would really effect anything is if you owned a home before your passing. Medicaid would be able to place a lien on the house and use that to reimburse the costs. It would be possible to avoid this by giving the house to someone else while you were still living, but it can get tricky and needs to handled in a certain way (which an estate lawyer can help with).


I don't have time now to respond (and not sure if I will have anytime soon) I just want to point out that there are many things incorrect in this post, so OP, you should research a bit more.

For example the above mentions only 2k in liquid assets in NY. Inaccurate.

In any case, OP you should call an organization who helps with medicaid enrollment, for example UJO and they know all the answers to your questions.
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