Most individuals want Medicaid to afford paid long-term care. To qualify for Medicaid, people will need to have very restricted earnings and few belongings. These with modest means should exhaust a lifetime of financial savings earlier than they develop into eligible. The house they dwell in is exempt underneath Medicaid eligibility guidelines. Nevertheless, after an individual receiving Medicaid long-term care dies, federal legislation requires states to try to gather the prices of that care from their remaining property. The Medicaid program refers to this course of as “property restoration.”
Forcing states to gather Medicaid prices is dangerous. It will possibly lead an individual to delay enrolling in Medicaid out of worry of dropping their residence, compromising their well being. It will possibly additionally deny a household the chance to cross on their residence to the following technology and assist safe their financial future. On this manner, the coverage perpetuates poverty and disproportionately harms economically oppressed communities and folks of shade who’ve confronted boundaries to constructing intergenerational wealth.
This messaging information offers suggestions to assist advocates clarify the harms of Medicaid property restoration to policymakers and the general public.
Keep away from Terminology that Can Be Misunderstood
Whereas the technical time period “property” refers back to the property a person owns at dying, many individuals affiliate the phrase with important wealth. The time period’s frequent utilization stands in stark distinction to the truth of individuals enrolled in Medicaid. As a substitute, use phrases like “residence,” “property,” or “financial savings” to explain what is definitely being taken away.
The time period “restoration” conveys that the state is reclaiming one thing it’s owed, a premise that goes in opposition to Medicaid’s objective. As a substitute, use phrases like “assortment” or “seizure.”
Advice One
Set the inspiration for why this coverage is dangerous.
Medicaid is an antipoverty program that’s solely out there to folks with restricted earnings and financial savings who can not in any other case afford care. For a state to later seize the particular person’s few remaining sources goes in opposition to Medicaid’s objective and retains households in poverty.
Key factors:
- Folks with Medicaid have little to no belongings. Information reveals that 75% of Medicaid enrollees age 65 and older had web wealth of lower than $48,500 at their dying. Black and Hispanic people in addition to folks with disabilities (who would want long-term care) have decrease common web wealth.
- With out Medicaid, folks don’t get the care they want—with generally deadly outcomes. Many older adults want long-term care after a fall or a stroke, or as a consequence of dementia or different progressive disabilities. Sadly, this coverage leads some to delay making use of for Medicaid out of worry of dropping their residence or burdening their households. This leads to taking up prices of care and medical debt, costlier care afterward, and worse outcomes, together with untimely dying.
- No different medical insurance or public advantages program requires advantages to be repaid. Fundamental wants applications like Medicaid are supposed to assist folks out of poverty. As a substitute, this coverage of gathering on accurately paid advantages successfully turns Medicaid right into a mortgage that households who depend on Medicaid can not afford to repay.
- The hurt of the gathering itself falls on the household with none regard to their monetary scenario. Relations typically offered caregiving to their beloved one at their very own expense, even perhaps slicing again on their very own earnings or leaving the workforce altogether. Even a small inheritance might be lifechanging for a kid or grandchild—or lifesaving for an inheritor who has fallen on onerous occasions.
- The coverage perpetuates poverty by forcing the following technology to start out from scratch. It forecloses the chance for one technology’s onerous work to supply the basis for monetary safety for the following technology.
- The price to the household far outweighs any profit to the state. Information reveals that states gather lower than 1% of the long-term care prices incurred after they seize property. Whereas this cash is of nominal worth to the state, just a few thousand {dollars} might allow a baby or grandchild go to high school, begin a enterprise, or purchase their very own residence.
Advice Two
Give attention to the first hurt: lack of the household residence.
Lengthy-term care is dear, which implies that the state can simply be pursuing a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} underneath this coverage. The state typically seizes the particular person’s home as a result of it’s their most useful asset, they usually have already spent any financial savings that they had in an effort to develop into eligible for Medicaid. The result’s that houses are offered moderately than saved within the household.
Key factors:
- Homeownership is on the core of the American dream. Older adults who labored and saved for a few years to purchase a modest residence count on that it will likely be handed on to their family members after they die.
- Dwelling possession is essential to monetary safety. For working class households, homeownership is the means to construct intergenerational wealth and be sure that their youngsters and grandchildren have a strong basis to thrive.
- The house could also be greater than a spot to dwell. It might be a supply of earnings for the household, like a farm.
- Taking away residence possession impacts complete communities. By displacing households and tying up houses in lengthy authorized proceedings, the destructive influence of residence seizure also can ripple by means of neighborhoods and communities.
Discover Justice in Growing older’s Sources on Medicaid Property Restoration
