Over
twenty years ago, the estate
recovery clause was added to
Medicaid. If you are 55 or over and receive Medicaid coverage, the state
you live in can seize your estate when you die to recover the costs they paid
out for your health care.
By
and large, a large percentage of the people receiving Medicaid have been the low
income sector and poverty sector. Once they start receiving Medicaid,
there is little if any incentive for them to try to work and get off the
system. In fact, it seems that government created the system in such a way
as make it more lucrative to be poor and stay poor than to try to work and make
something of one’s self. In that light, why shouldn’t the state seek
repayment of what they’ve paid out for someone’s laziness?
Under
Obamacare, the estate recovery may hit millions more Americans. Before
Obama could pardon the millions that would have lost their healthcare, there
were millions that already had lost their policies. Many of these people
cannot afford the new policies being offered to them through the Obamacare
exchange programs.
Thanks
to Obamacare, the qualifications for Medicaid have been changed to allow more
lower income people of all ages to apply. Twenty-six states adopted the
new Medicaid standards which means that more people will be applying and
receiving Medicaid coverage than ever before.
With
more people receiving Medicaid the system will quickly become drained of
resources, which means that states need to find new ways to generate enough
revenue to pay for them. Enacting the estate recovery clause is one way
that some states may be forced to turn.
It’s
possible that if Sofia Prins of Port Townsend, Washington had not read the fine
print for her fiancé’s, Gary Balhorn, Medicaid application. What she read
shocked her as it said that if you’re 55 or older and receive Medicaid, the
state can require your estate to pay back coverage after you die. Prins
realized that in the truest sense, Medicaid is not free insurance, rather it is
a loan against a person’s estate.
The Seattle
Times picked up their story
and word started to spread. In states like Washington, the lower Medicaid
standards are allowing more Americans to qualify for Medicaid. If they do,
they are then not eligible for any of the federal subsidy for the purchase of
healthcare.
So
if you are 55 to 64 and receiving Medicaid, you had best warn your heirs that
the state you live in may be coming for all or part of your estate to recover
the cost of your free healthcare. If they want to know why this is being
enforced more now than in the past, remind them that Obama has always been about
redistributing the wealth. By that I meant he wants redistribute it from
us to the government. Therefore, you’re better off spending it all or
giving to your family while you are still alive so there is no estate for them
to seize.
Lee ADDS: As senior citizen and PRODUCER, I PAID for MEDICARE and SOCIAL SECURITY! Neither is a gift! I PAY PREMIUMS for MEDICARE!
What is OBAMACARE'S EXCUSE for allowing GRAND THEFT?
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