As Salvatore LoGrande fought cancer and all the pain that came with it, his daughters promised to keep him in the white, pitched roof house he worked so hard to buy all those decades ago.
So, Sandy LoGrande thought it was a mistake when, a year after her father’s death, Massachusetts billed her $177,000 for her father’s Medicaid expenses and threatened to sue for his home if she didn’t pay up quickly.
“The home was everything,” to her father said LoGrande, 57.
But the bill and accompanying threat weren’t a mistake.
Rather, it was part of a routine process the federal government requires of every state: to recover money from the assets of dead people who, in their final years, relied on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded health insurance for the poorest Americans.
A person’s home is typically exempt from qualifying for Medicaid. But it is subject to the estate recovery process for those who were over 55 and used Medicaid to pay for long-term care such as nursing home stays or in-home health care.
This month, a Democratic lawmaker proposed scuttling the “cruel” program altogether. Critics argue the program collects too little — roughly 1% — of the more than $150 billion Medicaid spends yearly on long-term care. They also say many states fail to warn people who sign up for Medicaid that big bills and claims to their property might await their families once they die.
It's commonly got around too by those with the resources by switching the assets into a trust or in another person's name a few years before they need the long-term care. Literally only penalizes the most vulnerable. NYS long-term care is so stupid expensive because they privatized it.
I guess the only good part of not being allowed to marry (without losing almost everything), have assets, or afford to own anything as a disabled person is when I die the fuckers don't get a thing. My partner can go about his business.
While this good lawmaker tries to make it happen, are there any strategies for families to get around this?
I suppose relinquishing ownership of a house to loved ones, but that poses many problems. (What if there are more than one surviving adult children, who to choose? Maybe that might not deter debt collection anyway?)
EDIT for the following: since this is a federal law, it's a requirement in every state. Sorry for any confusion I caused. (Very odd, I'm trying to strike out the following, but I don't think it's working - sorry.)
~~Also, does this apply for every state? It seems Illinois - as an example - covers assisted living and nursing homes.
Is this a matter that mostly affects red states? The article doesn't seem to say.~~
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