Posted on 12/16/2013 7:39:27 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
As thousands of state residents enroll in Washington’s expanded Medicaid program, many will be surprised at fine print: After you’re dead, your estate can be billed for ordinary health-care expenses. State officials are scrambling to change the rule.
It wasn’t the moonlight, holiday-season euphoria or family pressure that made Sofia Prins and Gary Balhorn, both 62, suddenly decide to get married.
It was the fine print.
As fine print is wont to do, it had buried itself in a long form — Balhorn’s application for free health insurance through the expanded state Medicaid program. As the paperwork lay on the dining-room table in Port Townsend, Prins began reading.
She was shocked: If you’re 55 or over, Medicaid can come back after you’re dead and bill your estate for ordinary health-care expenses.
The way Prins saw it, that meant health insurance via Medicaid is hardly “free” for Washington residents 55 or older. It’s a loan, one whose payback requirements aren’t well advertised. And it penalizes people who, despite having a low income, have managed to keep a home or some savings they hope to pass to heirs, Prins said.
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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
I learned....Live rich....die poor....
There are, or at least were, legal means to transfer wealth. My mother did this with her grandchildren several years before she died. It had something to do with IRS Intergenerational Transfers. She did it and reported it.
It ended up being at no tax liability for her or the grandchildren.
Show me where I said it was okay for government to take 60-70% of your ‘income/wealth’. Especially for things “I like.”
You’re probably pissed because the Medicare rule has hit you personally and you didn’t get to keep what your parent/loved one actually should have paid.
Frankly, if you got free health care from other taxpayers, and you still had money when you died, I see no reason why your money should not pay back the taxpayers, instead of being given to your children. It’s not like your CHILDREN paid for your health care.
We have arranged for a “basic cremation casket”, which is about $1300. and can certainly be used for a regular burial. It’s simply a very plain pine number, with wooden handles and no hardware. My brother was buried in such at a natural burial cemetery, and those don’t allow caskets that use any metal or varnishes.
It was surprisingly well made and though simple, was very nice in appearance. I may check it out online, and see if the local funeral home will allow it (never know in NY), because if I can save even a few hundred I can put that towards the tiny memorial stone. I wish I could get one of those online cheap.
It’s tough when you take the steps to plan ahead, pay into a policy for many years, but the costs of services spike waaayyy past the planned figures. Again, I am thankful that I brought the plot years ago. I splurged and let Pop pick out the “fancy” cemetery, and the plot in the “ritzy” section. He said he doesn’t care about the funeral, but the burial plot WAS very important to him. And, after he had seen the casket my brother was buried in, he did say that he liked it and would like the same kind. LOL, so I’m off the hook about guilt over that item!
Exactly correct and very well stated. Big BUMP!
I find it sadly, cynically humorous how many Freepers on this thread are in fact “gaming the system”, or telling the others how to do it, but then go and rally against intrusive, overreaching gubmint on another thread.
That USA of old ain’t never coming back, is it?
And that is how you get to single payer...make it so nobody qualifies for any sort of “market plan” because their income is deemed too low. In a few years as the insurance companies go bankrupt, more folks get hearded into Medicaid, even richer or more well off folks, as Medicaid is the only “payer left” in the Obamacare system!
And that is the crux of the problem here between the two groups of thought. One group thinks Medicaid costs (indigently claimed I might add) should be recouped if there are assets.
The other group thinks it's okay to not take care of your parents, hide income and assets, and then to receive that wealth after they die - screw the taxpayer they so loudly declaim they are part of.
Debts are paid out of an estate when it is settled, I’m certainly not advocating against that.
I was just pointin’ out the big picture of how things work and who’s behind it.
Kind of “a word to the wise is sufficient”, a warning to those considering accepting medicaid.
It is commonly touted as a form of government charity - it’s not technically said or written that way by news media, liberals, etc., but they constantly leave out the “fine print” that the billing person goes over with you when they try to get you to sign on the dotted line. So liberals constantly imply that it is a government charity.
Those billing people will use the most deceptive tactics to get people to sign.
The medical industry simply wants to get rid of the idea of their not legally being able to refuse care and accepting a monthly payment of any size as repayment - and not being able to confiscate primary residence, etc. My parents did this one time, they repaid a bill over a few years when they had no insurance and did not have enough liquid assets; they wisely did not want to touch medicaid with a ten-foot pole.
Whenever the patient has no responsibility to pay fee for service, the patient ceases to care about how large the bill is and this allows for - thus encourages - ridiculous overbilling.
The major source of the problem of people not having much cash to pay at the time of service, and not having much in the way of investment assets when they get older, is the change in mentality that the sheeple have been molded into by various efforts in the 20th century. Consumer debt, breakdown of the family, immorality, etc. All these things yield a population of people that live hand-to-mouth their whole life and have nothing when they get old. Of course, private charity is what should be providing for the sick and the poor. However, in this new world order nation, charity has been coopted into a tax dodge industry which has hundreds of billions of capital under its management and is entirely devoted to perpetuating the cultural changes mentioned above. So instead of charitable monies going to help the sick and the poor, in the US they are used to convince the population to don the velvet chains with which they are to be enslaved.
Depends upon where you live and how your estate is configured. In CA you can have $2000 with the rest in a revocable trust.
People are SHOCKED that the socialist schemes are “unsustainable” and must grasp for any asset that can be appropriated for funding. It is shocking that hardly anyone knows that all these schemes (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) are a form of coveting and theft. On net balance, the average recipient will receive far more in benefits than they they paid in taxes or were paid into their account by their employer on their behalf.
Government helps to complete the recruitment into the conspiracy to defraud by not informing the recipient of benefits when they cross the line from receiving benefits they paid for and when the benefit is being financed by stealing from another citizen. Yes, I used the term stealing because running these Ponzi schemes is not one of the 13 enumerated powers granted in the Constitution. More important, socialism in general is evil because it exists on a justification of lies, coveting and theft, each of which is a violation of the Ten Commandments.
If we have indigent people, which we always will, we can fund their true needs in ways that don’t involve telling lies, coveting the wealth of others and conspiring to steal it through coercion and the threat of deadly force. Based on recent examples, government bureaucracies cost over 30% of the monies we are told were collected to help provide a “safety net”.
Moreover, this “safety net” now includes giving free cell phones to anyone who qualifies and it appears FREE GASOLINE.
see: Government Opening Free Gas Stations in Poor Neighborhoods
http://dailycurrant.com/2013/10/29/government-opening-free-gas-stations-in-poor-neighborhoods/
I haven't seen anyone advocating anything illegal.
Heck, if it's good enough for multi-billion corporations that pay next-to-nothing in taxes then surely us peons can do it, too.
I am pissed because I remember what health care was like before gov got involved (medicare). Just about everyone could afford health care. Kinda like higher education before gov ruined (made unfordable) that too. Everything except defense gov ruins when it get involved and in order to get involved it takes more and more from me.
I understand. It is not so cut and dried. And the government is not being completely honest up front.
Regardless, I believe there is enough discussion in what’s left of free America for those concerned about their loved ones, those who KNOW there is no such thing as a free lunch to at least take the time to investigate.
So do I. I have worked since I was 14. I have paid the maximum SS contributions as long as I can actually remember. I made damn good money before I retired two years ago. My Federal Tax Bill that year was over $50,000. I know plenty. The one thing I can say is that I never got (even though eligible) EITC, SNAP, Section 8, Medicaid, WICS, SCHIP, or any of that. It seems, though, almost half of us here in this country don't know anything but entitlement of one form or another, and that is all at taxpayer expense.
You have swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. Since gov is now in charge of our health care they can not control just about EVERY fastset of your life. All to save taxpayers $$$$$ of course. Smoke? You lose your house. Drink? You lose you car. Over weight? You are not allowed to buy fatty foods, etc, etc, etc.
Then what do you do with it? You have to find a funeral home who will allow you to use your own coffin purchased elsewhere.
Dido here, not one dime in tax payer for me. But now with health care they are going to get thier hands into my pocket and most likely will end up owning my home. I am healthy so thus far I have avoided medicare, I rather just pay cash for a doctors visit. I have no interest in end of life treatment I rather leave stuff behind for loved ones.
Get this-my Grandma-in-law had GIVEN my in-laws a nice house, free and clear AND fully renovated, about fifteen years earlier. My MIL still lives in that house. Greedy.
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