Don't Lose Heart

FINANCIAL AID

When you’re stuck between a rock and a heart place.

CAREGIVER FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
Every month, millions of people worry about how they will pay their rent or mortgage, utilities, phone bill, the food bill, car payment, and insurance, along with any other unexpected expenditures that might come their way. Almost everyone lives paycheck-to-paycheck, and when the extra responsibility of being a family caregiver for a loved one is added to an already costly equation, you’ve got a situation that stretches way beyond anyone’s financial imagination or reality. It’s taken several years for the financial plight of the family caregiver to be recognized, probably because it was always assumed that health insurance and other coverage would pay for any of the medical expenses and other needs of a loved one, which is certainly far from being true. Caregiver.com has a page where you can look up resources by state. Most contact information for these organizations consists of phone numbers. Some states have a large number of organizations listed here, some states (like Maine) don’t have any.
http://www.caregiver.com/regionalresources/financial/index.htm 

PAYING FOR A SPOUSE IN A NURSING HOME
Question: What happens when one half of a married couple is retired and in need of expensive nursing home care while a younger spouse is still working and earning income? Are there options for protecting any of the income or accumulated wealth (such as retirement accounts) of the younger spouse? Or does it all have to go to pay for the care of the one who’s ill?
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/paying-for-the-institutionalized-spouse/ 

DIVORCING TO BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR MEDICAID
Love Is (Not) All You Need
By Mary A. Fischer, March & April 2010
To provide for loved ones who need long-term care, too many older Americans are resorting to extreme measures. It doesn’t have to be this way.
http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-01-2010/love-is-not-all-you-need.html 

FREE GROCERY OR GAS CARD SCAMS
Beware of ads or phone calls from companies offering free grocery or gas cards worth $ at major gas stations and grocery stores, or major stores like Walmart and Target.  The phone scammers will ask for your credit card number and expiration date  “just to verify” something. They may say they’ll be mailing out the FREE cards but that there is a small shipping fee that needs to be charged to your card. If you think the company is legit and want to try it, ask them to give you their number and you’ll call them back. Most likely they’ll hang up. Do NOT give your credit card numbers or expiration date out to any company that phones offering free ANYTHING, to avoid credit card information scams like this. And never give your social security number to a questionable company.

HOW TO GET PAID FOR BEING A FAMILY CAREGIVER
If you’re one of more than 70 million people who provide unpaid caregiving for a family member or friend — either in that person’s home or in your own — you know that the time and energy burden can be enormous. In fact, you may have cut back or given up your paying job. Your smaller (or now nonexistent) paycheck may be pinching you hard. If so, it might be possible for you to get a small but regular payment for your caregiving work.
http://www.caring.com/articles/payment-for-family-caregiver 

BENEFITS CHECK-UP
Find and enroll in federal, state, local and private programs that help pay for prescription drugs, utility bills, meals, health care and other needs. BenefitsCheckUp includes more than 2,000 public and private benefits programs from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
http://www.benefitscheckup.org/ 

THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP) (the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program) helps low-income individuals and families buy the food they need for good health. Although SNAP is the national name, your state may use a different name.
https://www.benefitscheckup.org/snap.cfm 

MEDICAID OR MEDICARE?
Many people confuse Medicaid with Medicare, because Congress introduced them both in 1965 and they have similar-sounding names. Actually, they have completely different eligibility requirements and benefits, and they serve different purposes.

Almost anyone over the age of 65 qualifies for Medicare, while Medicaid is available only to people who are over 65, are blind or have a disability, and who meet income and resource limits. Even those who aren’t extremely low-income and have some assets may still be eligible for Medicaid, particularly if they have high medical costs — so it’s important to be familiar with the program. This is particularly true if someone needs long-term care, for which Medicaid can provide coverage even if they own their home.

MEDICAID OVERVIEW
Medicaid is the government’s program to deliver health insurance to people with low income and few or no assets.
http://www.medicaid.gov/

MEDICARE RIGHTS CENTER – Medicare Answers
The Medicare Rights Center works to ensure access to affordable health care for older adults and people with disabilities through counseling, educational programs and public policy initiatives. Understanding Medicare is no simple task. This website makes it easier and starts with the basics.
http://www.medicarerights.org/medicare-answers/ 

APPLY FOR EXTRA HELP
If you have Medicare and have limited income and resources, you may qualify for extra help paying for your prescription drugs. If you qualify, you could pay between $1-$5 for each drug. Contact Social Security by visiting  Social Security Online or by calling 1-800-772-1213. TTY users should call 1-800-325-0778 .
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/prescriptionhelp/ 

MEDICARE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

http://questions.medicare.gov/cgi-bin/medicare.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php 

MEDICARE SUPPLIER DIRECTORY
The primary purpose of this tool is to provide names, addresses, and contact information for suppliers that provide services or products under the Medicare program.
http://www.medicare.gov/Supplier/Home.asp?version=alternate&browser=Firefox|3.5|MacOSX&language=English&defaultstatus=0&pagelist=Home&CookiesEnabledStatus=True