As Salvatore LoGrande fought cancer and all the pain that came with it, his daughters promised to keep him in the white, pitched roof house he worked so hard to buy all those decades ago.
So, Sandy LoGrande thought it was a mistake when, a year after her father’s death, Massachusetts billed her $177,000 for her father’s Medicaid expenses and threatened to sue for his home if she didn’t pay up quickly.
“The home was everything,” to her father said LoGrande, 57.
But the bill and accompanying threat weren’t a mistake.
Rather, it was part of a routine process the federal government requires of every state: to recover money from the assets of dead people who, in their final years, relied on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded health insurance for the poorest Americans.
This month, a Democratic lawmaker proposed scuttling the “cruel” program altogether. Critics argue the program collects too little — roughly 1% — of the more than $150 billion Medicaid spends yearly on long-term care. They also say many states fail to warn people who sign up for Medicaid that big bills and claims to their property might await their families once they die.
How am I just learning this is a fucking thing. Since when is Medicare a fucking loan. What is wrong with this fucking country? We are straight up fucking evil.
This is actually Medicaid, not Medicare. Medicaid is often used to cover premiums and copays for Medicare for lower income individuals including people dealing with cancer and such though.
ah I did type the wrong one, but still…ive never heard of it being treated as a loan like this and I am shocked this isn’t more common knowledge.
Yeah, I agree it isn’t common knowledge and that the policy needs to change.
Right, but this still makes it a loan. Which I don’t really understand. I thought Medicaid is a “welfare” program designed to fill in gaps in health care for those who can’t afford insurance.
It is ridiculous how overcomplicated healthcare is in the US.
It’s more evil than you think. There are all sorts of ways to protect assets from Medicaid. Of course, it’s only worth doing when there are considerable assets. So basically if you have nothing, Medicaid costs nothing. If you have a little, Medicaid takes it all. If you have a lot, Medicaid will likely take a tiny fraction of your assets. And if you’re caught off guard, it takes everything.
You don’t inherit debts or crimes that’s fucked
What The Fuck! They take Medicare taxes out of every one of my paychecks. Have for my entire adult life. A program I can’t qualify for. And now your telling me it’s a fucking loan? No fucking way I pay for it I should get it and no fucking way they getting my house or anything.
I swear they better hope I never get a terminal disease with plenty of time before I die.
When revolution starting we can’t continue living this way.