“Should Medicaid protect $8 trillion from private senior living costs?”

“Should Medicaid protect $8 trillion from private senior living costs?,” by Stephen A. Moses, McKnight’s Senior Living

Quote:

“U.S seniors hold $8.05 trillion of home equity. Medicaid exempts between $603,000 and $906,000 of that wealth per person when determining financial eligibility for long-term care, the program’s most expensive benefit. That exemption is so high that scholars recently concluded ‘we estimate that nearly the entire elderly population would meet the home equity threshold.’ … Ever since the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA ’93), state Medicaid programs have been required to recover the cost of care provided from the estates, including home equity, of deceased recipients. … But all that is in jeopardy now. The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) recently recommended to Congress that Medicaid estate recoveries be made voluntary. … It behooves policymakers to stop the MACPAC proposal from passing in Congress. Crippling estate recoveries would be a big mistake.”

 

 

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

Click through to find out what should be done instead.