There are books written about avoiding this. But it takes planning. It is kind of a farce. If you make over 2400 a month in income, retirement, Social Security, you aren't illegible for government assistance with assisted living or Hospice. They will drain every penny you have to pay for it. If you make under that amount you can get a full ride. There are other factors but in a nutshell, it's set up kind of odd. But there are trusts you can set up to defer part of the income to get you below the magic number so the government assistance kicks in
This is pretty much it. The big issue is seeing this in advance. In Massachusetts, they look back five years, so you would have had to have the foresight to see it coming, but unfortunately at advanced ages issues can escalate quickly.
Even a modest dementia ward can cost 12,500 / mth, or 150k year. That can destroy someone's savings and assets quickly.
I don't think Bay is on the mark here. They've set up the system to make sense for those to distribute assets in advance. It's not like anyone's advocating living beneath the means they've earned - people can still live in the their house, spend their own money, etc, but not have it in their name.
