> When you hear about a “Medicaid spend-down”, it’s all about reducing an elderly persons assets so that the state sees them as poor and Medicaid will pay their Long Term Care (nursing home) expenses.
Correct.
> Medicare has almost nothing to do with the Medicaid spend-down strategy that I know of.
Basically. Medicaid will pay Medicare premiums for dual-eligible beneficiaries, and many states have special coverage plans for the dual-eligible population, so there is a Medicare-related impact of the spend-down, but it has nothing to do with exhausting Medicare lifetime benefit limits (which do not exist, also, under the ACA, do not exist for other insurance, either.)
Correct.
> Medicare has almost nothing to do with the Medicaid spend-down strategy that I know of.
Basically. Medicaid will pay Medicare premiums for dual-eligible beneficiaries, and many states have special coverage plans for the dual-eligible population, so there is a Medicare-related impact of the spend-down, but it has nothing to do with exhausting Medicare lifetime benefit limits (which do not exist, also, under the ACA, do not exist for other insurance, either.)