Medicare does not cover long-term dementia care — common misconception explained

Full analysis

Fosco identifies the single biggest financial misconception families carry: that Medicare will pay for assisted living or long-term memory care. It will not. Medicare covers only short-term rehabilitation — typically following a hospitalization — with the expectation that the person will recover and return to the community. For the ongoing cost of long-term care, families should look at four sources: private funds, long-term care insurance (Fosco notes that policies opened decades ago by parents may be sitting unused), VA benefits for those who served during wartime, and Medicaid (eligibility rules vary by state and are affected by whether a spouse still lives in the community). He advises families to locate any existing long-term care insurance policy now and read it carefully, including whether it has an elimination period — a set number of days the policyholder must pay out of pocket before benefits begin; his own mother's policy had a 90-day elimination period the family only discovered when she needed a skilled nursing stay.