She's in a health and rehab facility and will be eligible for Medicaid. Her CC debt with interest and accumulated late fees is near $18,000 and building. I can't pay this. I have been told not to worry....but I just don't want it to affect her healthcare. What do I do?
Don’t forget about the
1099-C that CC Companies will issue to the IRS as income to her mom when they write off the debt. This can come years later. Then the IRS can come after the SS that is going to Medicaid and cause mom to lose her Medicaid unless she has a tax expert deal with it.
Here is an excerpt from one of Igloos answers on this subject.
“For 1099-C there is IRS Form 982 Insolvency that can be done to offset the income. It is not simple….really it could have been written in Latvian for me. Most 1099-C & Form 982 information is about how to deal with it for foreclosures & short sales, as the mortgage written off is taxable income. For elderly, doing a successful 982 for written off CC debt is going to be much harder. I had to deal with it for MIL and it was done by a tax professional.1099-C tend to come as complete surprise…..but you can't ignore it.”
Here is the total thread.
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/what-happens-to-moms-credit-card-debt-183081.htm?orderby=recent
Go forward with the Medicaid process and get her into care as the first priority.
After that's settled, then do study up on the things that have been mentioned about the 1099 that she may receive in the future. It is not urgent to understand all that right now this minute, just to be aware of it so it's not an unpleasant surprise later.