Posted on 06/04/2009 8:33:58 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch
Did you know you could be responsible for your parents' unpaid bills? Thirty states currently have laws making adult children responsible for their parents if their parents can't afford to take care of themselves. While these laws are rarely enforced, there has been speculation that states may begin dusting them off as a way to save on Medicaid expenses, says SeniorJournal.com.
These laws, called filial responsibility laws, obligate adult children to provide necessities like food, clothing, housing, and medical attention for their indigent parents.
According to the National Center for Policy Analysis:
Twenty-one states allow a civil court action to obtain financial support or cost recovery. Twelve states impose criminal penalties on children who do not support their parents. Three states allow both civil and criminal actions. Generally, most states do not require children to provide care if they do not have the ability to pay. States vary on what factors they consider when determining whether an adult child has the ability to pay. Children may also not be required to support their parents if the parents abandoned them or did not support them.
The passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 made it more difficult to qualify for Medicaid, which means there may be more elderly individuals in nursing homes with no ability to pay for care. In response, nursing homes may use the filial responsibility laws as a way to get care paid for, says SeniorJournal.com.
Source: ElderLawAnswers.com, "States May Take New Look at Requiring Adult Children to Pay for Aging Parents; Boomers could get caught by laws already on books in thirty states," SeniorJournal.com, June 3, 2009.
For text:
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Boomers/2009/20090603-StatesMayTake.htm
For more on State and Local Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=40
So basically, you can be forced to inherit the debts of your parents? Of course it starts out with health-care but will lead to being responsible for their credit cards and cable. That get’s lumped on you, you die, then the debt is forcibly passed onto your kids. Wow....who says slavery is dead!
I took care of my parents - both physically and financially (as best I could). I’m so glad they are both in heaven together NOT living this happening in the country they loved.
There’s only one brother and my only sister who would be hard to take care of (I have FIVE brothers) if they take this to siblings. Sadly, it’s the “yellow dog” Democrat brother and the crazy sister.
Drunkard fathers shouldn’t qualify for liver transplants.
(I get your point and agree with it.)
“Inter-generational Responsibility” doesn’t work so well if the previous generations considers their future generations.
Both my parents were and are good to me, true. But they give no thought to their own health. That is their right, of course. But can it be, if I have to pay their bills? Can I tell them not to smoke and drink, destroying their bodies, because I’d ultimately get the bill?
It’s the same argument about government handouts. When you make someone responsible, you give them a say in your life.
You have no right to see your parents medical records — privacy laws, but we will make you pay for them.
And the reverse, with college kids. As a parent you must submit to privacy invasion with regard to income tax forms for them to get your and their tax monies back for college. They are 18 and can 100% make their own decisions and yet these 18-23 year olds cannot declare independence from parents. You cannot see their medical records either.
It’s all about bigger gov’t
Me neither, but the fact is that the state already mandates that I support deadbeats who aren't part of my family.
I agree.
In addition to the human costs of incarceration, the monetary burden is staggering. It costs $32,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate in a New York State prison and $64,000 to confine a woman in a New York City jail.
Source: http://projectgreenhope.org/advocacy/cost_prison.shtml
The article frames this as a problem for Boomers, but I see this as being aimed at *supporting* the boomers and their “me first” mentality, by soaking the still-producing gen X and Y.
That was my thought too. Though what I really worry about is opening the door to owning for another adult who you have no control over. If we might be responsible for caring and bills for that what stops them from allowing credit card comnpanies from requesting the same deal? I don’t know about you but once my Father died in 1999 my Mother went crazy and got herself into so much debt that she lost the house etc a few years back. I’d hate to think about what she probably owes! Thankfully she is only 19 years older than me so by the time she needs that kind of care we hopefully will be retired too without an income to take.
What is "LTC insurance?"
Regards,
Good point... and they are poor money managers. Jerks can’t even run an election correctly.
In an ideal world, children take care of their aging parents because their parents established a loving and caring relationship with them.
This ideal world exists more frequently among some families and some cultures than others. However, are we not a multicultural nation? Why should the government impose such cultural values among those who have had somewhat different relationships with their parents?
I am saddened by the Freepers who had unfortunate experiences with their parents. I will not go into my own similar experiences, except to say that I was relieved when my “father” passed (some time ago) and have since learned to understand and forgive my mother.
I do not think that forgiveness is always the appropriate course of action, but I hope that some who have posted will consider that option.
Hey Rose, you and me — we have a future together as the geriatic Thelma and Louise when we hit 70. Prison can be our long-term care. Little early yet, though. Let’s do it in about 20 years. /sarc
> But can it be, if I have to pay their bills? Can I tell them not to smoke and drink, destroying their bodies, because I’d ultimately get the bill?
I think you can ask them nicely not to, and explain why — including the fact that it is going to cost you. When you were young, they looked after you when you were ill, and they probably had a thing or two to say about you smoking and drinking.
One of the things that is wrong with modern society is that we do not look after our elderly. Both my Mom and my Wife have volunteered as nurses at old people’s homes, where families have basically warehoused their elderly until they eventually die. That is wrong. It is Evil.
Why should Volunteers look after anybody else’s parents, just because people are too dam’n selfish to do the job themselves — current company excepted, of course?
The “Me Generation” is so selfish it is sickening. God surely could not be pleased by this. Perhaps our Society has invited upon itself some of the problems that we are now experiencing. Perhaps we deserve Obama.
I always take note of when a liberal resorts to quoting the Bible about our “obligation” to “help” “those in need”. The quotes are to highlight how the left usurps language and turns something that should remain between God and man into something that gives the IRS the authority to send men with guns to enforce.
I am tempted to ask the liberals, if they are so supportive of this particular Biblical requirement, are they also supportive of its requirement to refrain from lies, coveting and theft, or at least sexual immorality?
It is none of those things if the government mandates it. It's just more slavery enforced with the barrel of a gun.
Uh Oh. Something that we agree on. I'll be spending the remainder of the day looking for giant, flying pigs.
> It is none of those things if the government mandates it. It’s just more slavery enforced with the barrel of a gun.
If the Government has to mandate decent behavior then that says a Hell of alot about US Society, and sadly not much of what it says is very good.
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