The EXEMPT Princes:
"Don't worry. It doesn't effect any of us in Congress or any Moslem."
Posted on 08/31/2014 2:24:20 PM PDT by Kaslin
Obamacare greatly expanded Medicaid coverage, but there is a hidden gotcha that may come back and haunt your heirs for benefits you receive from age 55-64.
This is not new news, but few read and understand the "fine print".
In a warning about the "fine print" and in response to Moral Dilemma: Should a Libertarian Who Does Not Need Food Stamps, but Qualifies for Them, Take Them? reader "TL" writes ...
Hello Mish,Medi-Cal Clawbacks and Liens
Your friend Steven may want to carefully research taking Medi-Cal benefits.
Medi-Cal, and many other state Medicaid programs include a ‘claw-back’ provision for recovery of costs incurred by the state to provide medical care. While there is much variation in particulars from one state to another, the bottom line is these costs include a monthly ‘administrative fee’
The ‘claw-back’ mechanism functions via the state placing ‘liens’ on individual assets at the point the Medicaid recipient reaches age 55, then recovers the money at the point the Medicaid recipient dies by ‘seizing’ the money from the estate.
When first put into effect, these ‘claw-back’ provisions were primarily intended to recover costs to the state of providing long term nursing home care for older recipients.
ObamaCare’s expanded Medicaid has, of course, now waived the assets portion of the ‘means test’. But under current law, those assets are subject to ‘claw-back’.
At the moment, the monthly ‘administrative fee’ amount for Medi-Cal is $611. Those who sign up for Medicaid may not be doing themselves any favors.
Medi-Cal estate recovery refers to state action to reclaim certain Medi-Cal costs from the estates of beneficiaries after their death. This program, which has been in place for decades, has received renewed attention from policymakers because of reports that some individuals newly eligible for Medi-Cal as expanded under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may not enroll for fear that their house and assets could later be seized.Medicaid Fine Print
... States also have the option to take a more expansive approach and seek recovery of costs for other covered services, not just LTSS, provided to beneficiaries age 55 and older. California has chosen this option and seeks recovery of Medi-Cal costs for all covered services provided to beneficiaries age 55 and over, with the exception of personal care services provided through the state’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. California has elected to use property liens to protect its claim in cases where the beneficiary was permanently institutionalized and not expected to return home. Medi-Cal places a lien against the beneficiary’s property while the beneficiary is still alive so it can seek recovery when the individual passes away or when the property is sold.
With an estimated 223,000 adults seeking health insurance headed toward Washington’s expanded Medicaid program over the next three years, the state’s estate-recovery rules, which allow collection of nearly all medical expenses, have come under fire.Obama Care "Final Payment"
Medicaid, in keeping with federal policy, has long tapped into estates. But because most low-income adults without disabilities could not qualify for typical medical coverage through Medicaid, recovery primarily involved expenses for nursing homes and other long-term care.
The federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed that. Now many more low-income residents will qualify for Medicaid, called Apple Health in Washington state.
But if they qualify for Medicaid, they’re not eligible for tax credits to subsidize a private health plan under the ACA, which requires all adults to have health insurance by March 31.
Unclear rules
One reason this snafu has become so troublesome is that ACA rules appear to give those who qualify for Medicaid little choice but to accept the coverage.
People cannot receive a tax credit to subsidize their purchase of a private health plan if their income qualifies them for Medicaid, said Bethany Frey, spokeswoman for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.
The EXEMPT Princes:
"Don't worry. It doesn't effect any of us in Congress or any Moslem."
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
$611 / month for insurance sounds like it’s in the ballpark for health insurance. I guess everybody just wants their stuff for free.
The guy in the front of that picture, Eric Cantor, is deciding which offer to take from K-Street, after watching his political career go DOWN THE TUBES in the biggest upset in centuries.
Thanks for the reminder!!!
Like the article says, the clawback is not news...and it WILL BITE people.
But not in Texas, since we chose not to play ball with that part of Obamacare.
Estate Recovery for Expanded Medicaid recipients has been repealed in WA State.
It only applies if you have assets the state can claw back. For most people, its not a concern.
Worse the state and feds can do is claw back some of your benefits if you overpaid but you’re free to always dispute it.
Regardless what activist justices and the corrupt legislative and executive branches of the federal government want everybody to think about the constitutionally of Democratcare, the Supreme Court has repeatedly historically clarified that the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constituiton, the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for intrastate public healthcare purposes.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress. [emphases added]” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
“Inspection laws, quarantine laws, health laws of every description [emphasis added], as well as laws for regulating the internal commerce of a state and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c., are component parts of this mass.” —Justice Barbour, New York v. Miln., 1837.
“Direct control of medical practice in the states is obviously [emphasis added] beyond the power of Congress.” –Linder v. United States, 1925.
And for those federal Democrats and RINOs who argue that if the Constitution doesn’t say that they can’t do something then they can do it, the Supreme Court has addressed that foolish idea too. PC interpretations of the Constitution's Supremacy Clause aside, Clause 2 of Section VI, the Supremes have clarified that powers not expressly delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, are prohibited to the feds.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
In fact, respected constitutional experts have historically stated that the Founding States trusted the states, not the federal government, with the care of the people.
Note that if the states should ultimately decide, for some unimaginable reason, that the corrupt federal government can manage healthcare programs better than the individual states can, then there is nothing stopping the states from amending the Constitution to expressly grant the feds the specific power to do so.
Some families with children who have subsidized Obamacare are finding that the kids are pushed into Medi-Cal.
Except that you've already been paying for it with an unavoidable deduction from every paycheck for the past thirty or forty years. You'd have a nice pile of cash by age 55 if they'd have invested it at even a couple of percent per year.
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