Many Americans rely on Medicaid when fighting diseases. But there's a catch. Often, states try to recoup the costs after the recipients die.

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.

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.

  • cqthca@reddthat.com
    9·
    10 months ago

    They have been doing that by default. I am elder-caring 4 my mom and don’t expect to inherit her house; as she is declining mentally and I’m not trained for full care.

    80% of medical spending is on the last two years of life. – a thing I heards.

    • SnausagesinaBlanket@lemmy.world
      71·
      10 months ago

      The ONLY way to protect the asset is to sell it and put the money in an qualified annuity. Medicaid cant touch qualified annuities and you will get what is left after she passes. There is no way to protect the house itself.

      • Mistymtn421@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        I believe there is a time limit to do that, like 5 years before applying for Medicaid. I am not certain, can’t look for the specific link ATM.

        • Clent@lemmy.world
          4·
          10 months ago

          This is correct. It is often referred to as the Medicaid look back period. 60 months in most states where they will scrutinize ever transaction.

          Used to be three years but congress, specifically a republican congress and president bush II with raised it to five years.

          All senate democrats voted against it as well as a couple of republicans but Dick Cheney broke the tie.