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 ...
They wouldn’t be on Medicaid, so, yes, they are exempt.
They have their own special “benefit plans” that don’t have these provisions.
I agree. They don't want to take care of Grandma now, so send her to the nursing home, where she'll stay alive until the estate is bled dry. And they still want that estate?
It's insane. If their generation had any common sense, they'd keep grandma in her home, and move in to provide TLC. That's free room and board, that Social Security check paying the expenses, and those retirement checks keep coming as long as they can keep the oldsters alive. The care situation?....guess again. Medicare will provide daily nursing assistance to keep that person out of the nursing home. Hospice does a good job, from what I've seen in the neighborhood.
Next transition, the kids get a mortgage-free house and some savings. It's a good deal (maybe the best they'll ever get), if people were able to grasp the concept of making choices.
Yes, you have to at least put it up for sale.
“Government charity” is an oxymoron.
NY may be angling to attach life insurance payouts for care costs. They have always been off limits, but I heard something awhile back that it was in the works to change that.
This is really disturbing as life insurance is not an asset, but is strictly voluntary and meant to help the surviving family members(in most cases)pay off outstanding obligations, funeral expenses and maybe have a bit left over to tide them over while they adjust financially.
In NY lottery winnings are subject to seizure if the winner has been on welfare. I think it’s 50% of the winnings not to exceed the amount the winner has received in benefits from NY, and may be the same (lottery winnings) percentage for people behind on child support too. I believe the welfare payback thing is in effect for ten years AFTER a person has ceased to be a recipient. I wonder if the winner would have to pay taxes on the full amount, or just the amount left after the state is paid back.
I have what I thought was a sufficient size burial policy for my father, but funeral prices have raised so much in the past five years that even pared down to the nitty gritty I will still come up short by at least a grand. Pop is on medicare, and I hope they don’t come after the little policy - if they do I’ll just have to leave Pop at the morgue and he will become a ward of the state.
Good damn thing I brought that burial plot for him back when I had a few bucks. That’s gone up by 25% also. At least the state isn’t coming after anyone for the value of the burial plots....yet.
How does someone actually qualify for Medicaid if they are old enough to qualify for Medicare? Any input from Freepers who are familiar with these programs would be appreciated.
Back in the day, before gov got into the health care business, poor folks could actually afford to see a doctor.
Remember back when Sen. Carol Browner, D-Illinois put all her mother’s assests in her own name before putting mommy in a nursing home?
One more thing about Obamacare that hurts white people more...
I have no problem in the state (which also funds it) taking that part of a person’s property to recoup costs for providing death care. Any sane person should have taken care of that problem long before it became a problem. Yet, most just say “let the government take care of Aunt Tillie.”
No one is guaranteed an inheritance folks! If someone racks up thousands of dollars in medical expenses and nursing home bills, and they have assets that could have been used to pay for those things, then the taxpayers are actually the ones who are getting stuck if Medicare doesn’t seek reimbursement!
Years ago, when I was in banking, I had a woman who came to my desk in tears. Her mother had fallen and needed surgery and rehab and she had no idea how she was going to pay for it. I looked up the mother’s account and told her that there was a 100K joint CD. I thought she would be incredibly relieved but instead she went into a full hissy fit - “That money is for ME when my mother dies...I’m not spending my inheritance to pay for a bunch of medical bills! The government should have free insurance and nursing home care for people like my mother!”
People - there is no such thing as a free lunch! There are more problems with Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare than any of us can list in one post but asking people with assets to cover their own expenses is not a bad thing!
And don't you ever suggest that I despise individual freedom, dude. If someone comes to force ME into Medicaid, they'll get a lesson in individual freedom that their great-great-grandchildren will learn about in school.
“Medicaid is a reverse mortgage on steroids and crack.”
Your so right, that was the first thing that came to my mind when I first heard about Medicad payback.
I give up with you rationalizers. You’d better recognize that no one has a right to anything they can’t honestly pay for. The sooner you realize that and act accordingly, the better off you’ll be.
Generally speaking, Medicaid is designed to help the poor. Medicare is designed to help the old. One can qualify for both & many do.
Medicaid can pay for nursing home expenses (and does for most people in them). Medicare does not pay for nursing homes.
Agree with your position, definitely
Regardless of what you name it, the government DOES step in and take care of indigents (at least that’s what they claim) when NO ONE else seems willing - even the heirs complaining about all those assets being taken after the poor ‘indigent’ dies.
Most people know how to play the game better.
The game is to give/sell assets to relatives and pretend you’re destitute.
Medicad= Medicaid
What's the difference. A transfer of debt is a transfer of wealth, isn't it?
I mean, the debtor's debt is the lender's wealth. Or else why do big mortgage banks buy mortgages from originators?
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