Sketch of New Medicaid Rules - Don't like them? Call your Congressman!

Category: Elder Law

Given Florida's senior population, the proposed changes to the Medicaid laws is a topic that is receiving great coverage. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel - a layman's thumbnail sketch of the new rules.

The House of Representatives will vote to finalize the new Medicaid Transfer Penalty Rule this on February 1. Contact your congressman to express your concerns about transfer penalties that will leave vulnerable seniors in need of nursing home care no where to go as no funds will exist to pay for their care.

"Currently, making a significant financial gift to friends or family within the past three years would disqualify you from receiving Medicaid coverage for nursing home care. The new law, pending before Congress, extends this so-called 'lookback' period to five years.

If you do make a gift, there is a 'penalty period' before you can reapply for Medicaid, calculated on a formula based on average nursing home cost and the size of the gift. Currently, the penalty period begins when the gift was made. But under the new law, it would begin when the Medicaid application was made, meaning you could wait for many months before you were eligible to reapply.

Anyone with $500,000 or more equity in their home would be disqualified from applying for Medicaid, which might hurt those with modest incomes living in South Florida's inflated housing market. [Similar to New Jersey's highly inflated housing market]

The government would become the prime beneficiary, before children or relatives, on some annuities if the holder applies for Medicaid. Mortgages and promissory notes would be counted as assets.

Nursing home residents, or the homes themselves on behalf of their residents, could ask Medicaid to pay for care by showing a hardship exists. Each state would establish its own hardship process."

NY Budget Proposal - Eliminate Estate Tax; State Takeover Medicaid Costs

Category: Elder Law, Estate and Inheritance Tax

From Newsday.com - Pataki proposes $110.7 billion budget: "Gov. George Pataki proposed a $110.7 billion state budget plan Tuesday that would reduce property, income and business taxes by $3.2 billion even while pumping up spending on education and energy independence." This article outlines the basic budget package proposal.

Key agenda items are (1) elimination of the New York Estate Tax, and (2) a state takeover the Medicaid program, which is currently administered on the county level, and funded through through the joint efforts of the county, the state and the federal government.

One response to the proposed elimination of the New York Estate Tax from Newsday.com - Elimination of estate tax will cost state millions:

"In the budget unveiled Tuesday, Pataki proposed doubling the amount free from the state's estate tax to $2 million starting in 2007, bringing the exemption in line with federal rules. The exemption would rise to $3.5 million in 2009, and the tax would be eliminated in 2010. While federal law calls for the federal estate tax to be restored in 2011 with a $1 million exemption, New York's tax would disappear permanently.

It could be difficult, however, to get the plan through the state Legislature, where Democrats are looking at it with a critical eye. The state estate tax is expected to bring in $868 million during the fiscal year ending March 31."

One response to the Medicaid issue from ABC affiliate weny.com : 'At the county level, Pataki proposed a $1.1 billion state takeover of Medicaid costs.
"Counties will no longer have spiraling Medicaid costs that push county property tax higher," said Pataki.
"It's good news," said Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli. "But we've got a lot of work to do."
Santulli says the county will still have to foot a $120 million Medicaid bill despite Pataki's proposal.
"That's in growth, not in existing program," Santulli explained. "The program is no smaller than it was before."'

US Supreme Court - Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law Legal

Category: Elder Law, Estate Planning, Miscellaneous Musings

From Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog - the United States Supreme Court Upholds Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law:

"The United States Supreme Court has upheld Oregon's assisted suicide law in a 6-3 opinion released today (January 17, 2006).

In 2001, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft determined that assisted suicide was not a legitimate medical practice and thus doctors who prescribe the deadly drugs would be in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)...

In today's opinion, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court recognized that the federal government has the authority to punish drug dealers and pass rules for health and safety but that in the case of Oregon's"

See also: Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Suicide Law, AP, Jan. 17, 2006.

"The Supreme Court upheld Oregon's law on physician-assisted suicide yesterday, ruling that the Justice Department may not punish doctors who help terminally ill patients end their lives.

By a vote of 6 to 3, the court ruled that Attorney General John D. Ashcroft exceeded his legal authority in 2001 when he threatened to prohibit doctors from prescribing federally controlled drugs if they authorized lethal doses of the medications under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act....

A Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll released Jan. 5 found that 46 percent of Americans support a right to assisted suicide while 45 percent oppose it. Assisting suicide is a crime in 44 states, including Maryland, as well as the District. It is a civil offense in Virginia. In three states -- North Carolina, Utah and Wyoming -- the law neither prohibits nor permits assisted suicide. Ohio's Supreme Court has decriminalized assisted suicide, but state regulations do not condone it.

State referendums supporting assisted suicide have failed in California, Maine, Michigan and Washington. A bill failed in Maryland in 1995 and 1996."

Medicare Drug Program Creates Health Care Crisis - Seniors denied Rx drug benefits

Category: Elder Law

From USA Today: Seniors denied Rx drug benefits: "Medicare's new prescription-drug program is causing thousands of low-income seniors and disabled Americans to lose their drug benefits, prompting at least 14 states to pay for their prescriptions.

The problem affects thousands of the 6.2 million people whose drug coverage was automatically transferred from Medicaid to Medicare this month. At drugstores nationwide, pharmacists are telling beneficiaries that they're not enrolled, or their drugs aren't covered, or they must pay deductibles and larger co-payments than they can afford, interviews with federal, state and local officials show. (Related story: Benefit costly for some poor)"

Mummy of Woman Who Died in '03 Found in Front of TV

Category: Elder Law, Miscellaneous Musings

This story definitely falls into the category of strange but true:

Woman Who Died in '03 Left in Front of TV - Yahoo! News: "The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said. "

The story goes on the say that the elderly woman instructed her caregiver to allow her body to stay at home, and the caregiver was merely acquiescing to the request, so this isn't necessarily shades of the movie Psycho.

The tale does make you think about the plight of the homebound elderly, as this could easily have been a news item about neglect instead of adhering to a person's wishes (unusual though they may be).