Trends

How Medicaid Recovers the Cost of Long-Term Care From Your Estate After You Die

If Medicaid pays for nursing home care, the state can try to collect reimbursement for these costs from the person's assets after he or she dies.

The federal government has an established policy requiring that all states must try to recover the costs paid on behalf of those who received certain types of Medicaid coverage during their lifetime. All states attempt to recover long-term care costs, including home health services and hospitalizations while in long-term care, and some try to recover regular Medicaid costs as well (though they can generally only recover costs paid for those who were 55 or older or institutionalized when they received Medicaid benefits). 

While individual state laws on estate recovery vary, they all boil down to two different ways to recover costs paid: recovering from the deceased person's estate and putting liens on the person's property.

 DYI:  As we approach the 2020’s here is one of the trends that will accelerate as one under funded government program after another comes under intense scrutiny.  Bottom line taxes will go up and benefits will be decreased.  Placing liens against individuals who receive benefits is simply a different form of taxation.  Anticipate State governments through the 2020’s all the way to 2040 to aggressively collect additional taxes.  Only until the huge Boomer generation is firmly planted in their graves [This blogger is one of them (age 64)] is when the financial pressure will subside.

 DYI