Medicaid for Millionaires

Summary: Medicaid for Millionaires briefly touches on one of the many problems facing the U.S. and its current Medicaid policy. The articles begins by acknowledging the fact that Medicaid was originally formed in 1965 with the intent of providing medical care just for the poor, and how lately this hasn’t been the case. Today were finding out how more of societies upper-class are discovering ways to receive Medicaid benefits as well. The system is being called “Asset-Shifting”, were anyone is allowed to give away most of their assets (no matter the cost) to someone else and three years later claim the same medical benefits being set aside for the poor. As quoted in the article “there’s an entire industry being dedicated to making sure that other taxpayers, not they, be responsible for paying the nursing-home needs of the rich“. Though morally questionable, more and more Medical Planners today directly counsel their well-off clients on how to take advantage of this loop-hole in our system. A more troubling fact is that of the 100% of the less fortunate that occupy the scarcer Medicaid beds being provided by the government, 70% of those in well kept nursing homes receive the same exact Medicaid benefits. Many government officials have tried to stop this on going trend by passing laws during the 90’s that required states to recover the cost of benefits from the estates of those who attempt asset shifting, however failing miserably due to half-hearted efforts.

To our governments credit the efforts of a decade ago didn’t break sprits of our lawmakers who still feel that asset shifting is a unjust practice. Four states have already implemented the new Partnership Program, which allows a consumer who buys, 100,000 in long term care to exempt that sum before claiming the rest of their assets, which would in turn allow that person to preserve money for their heirs and/or purchase the long-term care of their choice.