‘”The letter came from the state department of human services in July 2021. It expressed condolences for the loss of the recipient’s mother, who had died a few weeks earlier at 88,” Paula Span writes over at The New York Times. “Then it explained that the deceased had incurred a Medicaid debt of more than $77,000 and provided instructions on how to repay the money. ‘I was stunned,’ said the woman’s 62-year-old daughter. … She asked not to be identified, because the case is unresolved and she doesn’t want to jeopardize her chances of getting the bill reduced. … The daughter moved into the family’s Midwestern home years earlier, when her widowed mother, who had vascular dementia, began to need assistance. Her mother was well insured, with Medicare, a private supplemental ‘Medigap’ policy and long-term care insurance. The only reason she enrolled in Medicaid was that she had signed up for a state program that allowed her daughter to receive modest payments for caregiving. But that triggered additional monthly charges through a Medicaid managed care organization, and now the state wants that money back. The practice dates to 1993, when Congress mandated that when Medicaid beneficiaries over age 55 have used long-term services, such as nursing homes or home care, states must try to recover those expenses from the beneficiaries’ estates after their deaths. ‘Medicaid requires beneficiaries to spend down almost all their assets’ to qualify for benefits, explained Eric Carlson, a directing attorney at Justice in Aging. Most states allow those eligible for Medicaid to retain assets worth only $2,000. But if a beneficiary owns a home, it can be exempt. Still, if Medicaid has paid for long-term care and there’s money to be had after death, state agencies will come for the assets. … Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, … reintroduced a bill, the Stop Unfair Medicaid Recoveries Act, to end the practice. Her staff has calculated that 17,000 families in Illinois alone have lost homes to Medicaid recovery since 2021. Comparable national figures aren’t available. ” Paula Span, “When Medicaid comes after the family home,” The New York Times.
