Crisis Medicaid planning in Florida happens after a health event has already occurred — a parent is in the hospital, a discharge date is set, and the family has days to figure out how care will be paid for. Proactive planning happens years earlier, when every option is still open.

Medicaid spend-down in Florida is the process of reducing countable assets to meet the program's eligibility limit — and it is the single area where families most often act on bad information at real cost. Florida reviews sixty months of financial history on every long-term care application.

Florida Medicaid eligibility for long-term care turns on two financial tests — an income test and an asset test — plus a determination that the applicant genuinely needs that level of care. The tests are more forgiving than most families assume and more technical than most families expect.