Legal Guardianship of Parents

[BabsBarry]

Has anyone ever tried to get legal guardianship of their parents? My father has Alzheimers and my mother is in the beginning stages of senility, so I moved them in with me two years ago. I support them and use their social security to pay off their back bills. Unfortunately, they got themselves in a pretty bad financial situation before we realized how badly their minds were getting. My goal is to eventually be able to get them into a nice assisted living home once they've reached the stage where I cannot provide adequate care for them. But the decent homes are all credit based, so I'm trying to clean up their credit score.

They both have Medicare and Dad has VA benefits. However, very little of their medical needs are met by this. We still shell out alot of money every month for medications, co-pays, and diabetes supplies. And nothing covers dental and eyes, they both need dental work and glasses, they both have diabetes and require eye glasses. I tried to get Medicaid for them, but since they live with me, I make just enough too much for them to qualify.

I have very good health, dental, and eye insurance through my employer and would love to have them on my policies. However, I can't put them on my insurances unless I have full legal guardianship of them. Yet I don't want to take away all of their independence and am not sure what the best move would be. I consulted an attorney a year ago about it, he said they would have to be medically determined to be completely incapable of caring for themselves and that they would lose all rights. And if something happened to me, they would become wards of the state. I definitely don't want that to happen.

I appreciate any and all input and advice. Thank you!!!