California – Struggling with Medi-Cal SOC for my ill mom

Sorry for the long post.

Long story short, four years ago, my mom almost lost her home. My dad (they are long divorced but friends) and I saved her and I have been helping her with her mortgage since. 6mos ago my mom was hospitalized for pneumonia and ever since she has been in and out of the hospital. I'm now struggling not only to manage all of her finances, medications, groceries, and care, but I'm also trying to secure her more care and help her stay in her home.

Her only income is social security and I recently applied her for Medi-Cal. I knew there was going to be a share of cost, but I was naive and shocked by the SOC, leaving my mom with only $600 to pay her bills each month. I count on her social security to pay everything but the mortgage. Medi-Cal didn't factor in any Medicare premiums and getting ahold of them is impossible. I know it's the law and this 40yr old $600 maintenance need, bullshit rule is changing at the first of the year.

Question: A few months ago, we hired an attorney to create a trust and estate plan for her. When he told me about the maximum for free Medi-Cal (my mom grosses $600 over that amount), he said that people buy "extra expensive insurance policies" to come in under that limit. When I probed further, he would say something dismissive like, "People buy policies for lots of things", or, "That's your challenge to figure out". Was he just being a hypothetical asshole or is this actually possible? During open enrollment, the plans wouldn't get me anywhere close to spending that amount.

I'm grasping at straws here, but I'm just trying to learn as much as I can.

submitted by /u/Doomape
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