FACT CHECK ; What happens when a Medicaid recipient dies?
By Carole Fader | |
Proquest LLC |
Times-
Is it true that Obamacare allows the government to confiscate the estates of seniors on
The Affordable Care Act didn't change current law, which allows states to recover the costs of long-term care from the estates of dead
As the health insurance gurus at the information website About.com explain, the main reason behind the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program is to lower
But opponents to the recovery plan argue that it's unfair to affect people who obviously don't have a lot of means, while sparing those who can pay to get advice to shelter assets. Also, others argue that the threat of estate recovery causes people to forgo
As FactCheck.org points out, all states have had the option since
The General Accounting Office recommended making the program mandatory and expanding it to include the estates of surviving spouses.
There can be no government recovery when there is a surviving spouse, a child under the age of 21, or a child of any age who is blind or disabled, the law states. And states can't take more money than was disbursed for care.
That law also reduced the age of deceased recipients whose estates are subject to the recovery from 65 and over to 55 and over andgave states the option to recover all other
The amount of money collected by states varies greatly, FactCheck.org reports. According to a 2005
While the Affordable Care Act did nothing to change existing federal law, it does, however, change three things that potentially will subject more people and their assets to the
- Mandates that most Americans have health insurance, or pay a penalty. The penalty in 2014 starts at
- Expands eligibility for
The ACA expanded
- Eliminates assets test from eligibility requirements. As the
A Treasury official told FactCheck.org that it is "very unlikely" that a person who refuses to sign up for
FactCheck.org does warn, however, that consumers need to understand the Affordable Care Act and <org>Medicaid estate recovery laws before signing up for
Copyright: | (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |
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