Planning for long-term care is one of the hardest financial puzzles families face. In New York, one woman laid it out in plain terms on an aging-care forum: Can my mother cash out her annuity to pay off her mortgage and still qualify for Medicaid to cover the costs of a nursing home?
She explained that her mother may need care in just a couple of months. Cashing out the annuity would mean a withdrawal fee, but she had already accepted that. What worried her was Medicaid's strict asset limit. If her mother left the annuity in place, she said, it would push her nearly $30,000 over the threshold of $32,396 for a single applicant in 2025. "We'd much rather see her pay off the mortgage with it than lose it to Medicaid altogether. If we do, is there still any risk Medicaid could penalize us for doing it?"
