A flap over recouping costs of Medicaid

[Target_For_Exterm]

"ORLANDO, FLA. - Ever since Judy Clifford's parents died, she had planned to move with her husband into their Nashville, Tenn., home, which she knew so well.

"I felt like they were still there," says Ms. Clifford, who is retired. "I could see my mother standing at the sink washing dishes and my daddy watching TV, and I wanted to stay in the house because of that."

Instead, the two-bedroom ranch-style home is for sale for $122,000, the subject of a bitter tug-of-war between the Cliffords and TennCare, Tennessee's healthcare program for the poor and uninsured. TennCare has laid claim to the home to recoup the cost of caring for Clifford's mother, who was on TennCare when she died three years ago.

In the face of soaring Medicaid costs, Tennessee and every other state are required to set up a Medicaid estate-recovery program. Many have been launched only recently, and some - like Tennessee's - are becoming more aggressive. Often, they target the home because it's all that's left after beneficiaries have spent their assets to pay for nursing-home care."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20061226/ts_csm/amedicaid

Our government is a bunch of sick vultures. The more I learn about them, the more I absolutely DESPISE them.

[Joanne98]

1. Greed is the root of all evil......

The RW is doing this. I hate their guts all the time. It's easier for me to just stay in one mode. Republicans are the greediest people on Earth.

[jwirr]

3. I think that you are forgetting that this practice has been going on

for a long time. When a senior dies with assets left over they usually are part of the estate and all pending bills come out of that estate before the heirs get anything. When you get medicaid which pays for nursing home care you sign papers ahead of time that agree to use your money to pay for it. That means you have agreed to pay out of your estate. The law was intended to stop the early transfer of assets to children and then letting welfare pay for your care. The rich man's escape clause is to transfer assets so they are not counted. This family followed the honest way of doing it and their parents paid for their own care.

Sorry. If more people took responsibility for their own families it would cost less for taxpayers.

I know because I took care of both my handicapped daughter and my parents in our home. When they died I could have put a bill into the estate for the cost of their care but I did not because I wanted to do it.

[damntexdem]

5. But the issue is that division of assets and protection of assets ...

were supposed to shelter some things, particularly family homes, from confiscation. The basic issue was that the costs of sending one member of a couple to a nursing home used to so impoverish the spouse that the spouse also tended to end up in a nursing home. The ability to transfer assets to children CAN BE another issue entirely -- although not if a child in question is disabled, mentally or otherwise, so needs the transferred assets. It's not just altruism, it's also about saving the public money in the long run.

[jwirr]

10. Unfortunately the law states that for the home to be sheltered

the heir would have to be living in it when the parent dies. That is to make sure that they do not make someone homeless or to destroy a business/farm. In Iowa I know of several families who bought the family farm/home and made payments to the nursing home for their care. Others kept their parents in their homes so the entire inheritance was not used up.

I realize I am in a minority here but I grew up watching the rich in our community use welfare for their parents while they bitched about helping the real poor and insisted they were pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

If we want to allow people to live in nursing homes and the tax payers do not mind paying the cost regardless of the needs so that heirs can inherit then we are going to have a very large medicaid increase.

The thinking is that people should use their assets to pay for their own care. When they run out of resources then they can use medicaid. I think this may be a moot question if we were dealing with a national health care program. But until then people are expected to pay their own way if they have the means.

[sarcasmo]

2. Health Care will be the final downfall of our Society.

The Health Care system in this Country is in such shambles that they have to take a dead woman's house to pay for her care?. This quote sums it all up. "It's fine that these programs are required by federal law, but people need to know the rules of the game," says Wendy Fox-Grage, policy adviser with the AARP Public Policy Institute. "We're concerned that families are not being notified."
Your health care is now a game and we need to know all of the rules.
The Fall of the Roman Empire is occurring right before our eyes.

[doodadem]

4. This happened to my disabled sister

Her little house was all she had left in the world, and what kept her going in the nursing home--thinking she may be able to go back home at some point.

She never made it out alive, and Medicaid forced the sale of her house. She had wanted it to go to her two young sons.

My ill, elderly parents are both on Medicaid and Medicare now. They actually audit their bank accounts for godsakes! So when I want to send them money, I have to send a check to my brother, have him cash it, and give it to my folks.

The healthcare system in this country is completely broken. The best line out of the final episodes of "The West Wing" was when Jimmy Smits character said he thought everyone should be on Medicare in this country, as it was efficient and cost-effective. Hinting at socialism.

Medicaid however, sucks.

[Rosemary2205]

6. Medicare is also in deep cheese

and that was before Bush slapped full price drugs on it. It's getting harder and harder to find a provider who will take medicare. The payouts are not worth all the money the provider has to spend on administrative costs to get paid.

[Supersedeas]

7. Healthcare or the Family Farm--that's the social safety net??

[MountainLaurel]

8. Pretty much

My friend's father, who is in the end stages of MS, had to sell his home in order to enter a long-term care facility.

[Bluerthanblue]

9. yep- which is

pretty frickin sad eh?

I chose to go off the system, and let nature take it's course rather than leave my sons with nothing but debts- At least they'll have this farm-