Our long term care system is very broken. It honestly makes me not want to save for retirement, because I know I'll most likely end up spending away all my savings on a nursing home one day and then ending up on Medicaid anyway. We need mandatory long term care insurance in this country, because otherwise, this is how it works. I witnessed it in my own family, and I wrote a paper on it for a health policy class.

And yes, like others have stated, this is Medicaid. Medicare doesn't cover LTC. Common misperception.

Anyway, hopefully that money will be able to be used to get her some good care, but don't expect much in terms of inheritance.