Why should tax payers be on the hook for people who could have afforded their own nursing home expense or at least contributed toward it, but through extate planning, gave away their accumulated assets before hand? Perhaps long term care insurance should be mandatory just like Social Security.
Interesting and important (in my opinion) comment...
(preface, I'm not an attorney and not an expert on this stuff)
I was once told by someone that the State of TN has a law on the books that says essentially "if your parent goes into long term care and is on the states dime, the state can sue YOU the CHILD for those funds. If your parent TRIED to get long term care insurance and was rejected.... maybe you won't be sued but if they went into it "we'll let the state pay for it" which means your next door neighbor, then the state might come after you.
I'm sure there's more to it but here's what I found on a quick google search:
Filial Laws
Northwestern Mutual BrandVoice: Who Will Pay For Mom's Or Dad's Nursing Home Bill? Filial Support Laws And Long-Term Care
Who Will Pay For Mom's Or Dad's Nursing Home Bill? Filial Support Laws And Long-Term Care
Northwestern Mutual
Northwestern Mutual
BRANDVOICE
Imagine this: One day youæ±*e sifting through your mail. In the pile of letters, bills and junk mail, you find a letter from a law firm informing you that you need to pay $50,000 to cover the cost of your fatherç—´ recent nursing home stay, or the care facility will sue you.
While this may seem farfetched, depending on your parents state of residence, this could be a possibility.
If your parents live in one of 29 states or Puerto Rico that has filial responsibility laws on the books, you could potentially be held legally responsible for their care under certain circumstances, such as when your parents are ailing and without sufficient financial resources to take care of themselves. Until recently, these statutes have been largely ignored. However, several recent court decisions indicate that there might be renewed interest in enforcing them.
Who Will Pay For Mom's Or Dad's Nursing Home Bill?
States Currently with Filial Responsibility Laws
Alaska Kentucky New Jersey Tennessee
Arkansas Louisiana North Carolina Utah
California Maryland North Dakota Vermont
Connecticut Massachusetts Ohio Virginia
Delaware Mississippi Oregon West Virginia
Georgia Montana Pennsylvania
Indiana Nevada Rhode Island Puerto Rico
Iowa New Hampshire South Dakota
Filial support laws aren稚 new. In fact, they were initially derived from England痴 16th century 撤oor Laws. At one time, as many as 45 U.S. states had statutes obligating an adult child to care for his or her parents. Some states repealed their filial support laws after Medicaid took a greater role in providing relief to elderly patients without means. Other states did not, and a large number of filial support laws remain dormant on the books.
Now, with long-term care costs on the rise and funding sources under pressure, nursing homes and other health care providers may have increasing incentive to seek to use the courts to compel children to either help a parent financially or be at risk for covering the cost of his or her care.
In the last decade or so, a few court decisions in both South Dakota and Pennsylvania have opened the door to using filial support statutes to recover medical expenses. Underlying the earlier decisions was generally a finding of ç*¥nclean handsè¿«that the children had engaged in fraudulent conduct or had illegally transferred mom and dadç—´ assets. Recently, however, there has been at least one court decision that found a child responsible for his motherç—´ nursing home bill without any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the child.
