Obamacare Shock: Strip Assets From Dead Seniors

December 23, 2013 by Doug Book 15 Comments

The Affordable Care Act was designed to dramatically increase the number of Americans who qualify for Medicaid. In fact, the ACA will literally FORCE many low income seniors onto Medicaid rolls as subsidies for regular ObamaCare plans are NOT available to those over 55 years of age who earn less than 138% of the federal poverty level ($15,856 for individuals; $21,403 for married couples). And without such subsidies, ObamaCare plans are generally far too expensive for older, low-income individuals or couples.

Why should any of this matter to those getting “free” healthcare via Medicaid?
Because: “If you’re 55 or over, Medicaid can come back after you’re dead and bill your estate for ordinary health-care expenses.”
The government has long been permitted to seek reimbursement for healthcare services by attaching the assets of deceased Medicaid enrollees. But before ObamaCare, an asset test was mandatory for Medicaid applicants and only those with few or no assets could qualify for government provided care. As a result, there was little of value which the state could attach after death.
ObamaCare, however, has done away with the asset test. Eligibility for Medicaid is now dependent only upon income. And at 138% of the federal poverty mark, that eligibility level is much higher than in previous years. Therefore, countless Americans who have accumulated valuable assets yet show little income will now qualify as Medicaid recipients.
So if parents have been placed on a state Medicaid roll, the house, car or other assets they had intended leaving to their children will be attached by that state upon their death. A lien will be filed and full payment for those “free” healthcare services provided from the date of enrollment until the time of death will be confiscated from any available estate holdings.

“There was no intent on the part of the ACA to do estate recovery on people going into Medicaid,” claims Bob Crittenden, senior health policy adviser to Washington State Governor Jay Inslee. “The idea was to expand coverage.” According to Crittenden, the expanded authority which ObamaCare provides states to confiscate the assets of the dead is merely an unfortunate, unintentional accident. It was not a deliberate measure by which governments might enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and middle class.
Well of COURSE not! Just because government has an insatiable appetite for money doesn’t mean lawmakers would deliberately fashion a quiet, “fine print” means of confiscating wealth from an unsuspecting public! And we ALL know that such an underhanded scheme would never occur to anyone in the Obama Administration.
In any event, yet another shoe has dropped on authors of the Affordable Care Act. Not only have they been found working to transform citizens into subjects, they have now been discovered deliberately turning the dead into cash cows.
Since this despicable plot was exposed by the Seattle Times, a number of states have vowed to change estate recovery rules as revised by ObamaCare. All very nice of course. But what government provides it can also take away. How long will it be until tough financial times cause politicians to once again quietly insert asset confiscation measures into the fine print?
Thanks again, Chief Justice Roberts.
Photo Credit:  Standard Compliant