OCPA: Oklahoma Health Care Authority Should Stop Expanding Medicaid
Oklahoma Health Care Authority should stop expanding Medicaid
BY JONATHAN SMALL, CPA · TUE, APR 23, 2013 07:00 AM CDT
“Medicaid was established in 1965 with the worthy aim of providing medical care for the poor; it was never intended as a middle-class entitlement or as inheritance protection for the children of well-off seniors,” The Wall Street Journal has correctly observed (“Medicaid for Millionaires”).
Yet the latter is precisely what has happened — to the point that sheltering assets and income to qualify for Medicaid is now as routine as writing a will.
If you don’t believe us, Google “Medicaid estate planning” on the Web and see what pops up. There’s a whole “elderlaw” industry out there dedicated to the children of seniors who want to make sure that other taxpayers, not they, pay for nursing-home care via Medicaid should mom or dad ever need it. As one advertiser puts it, “You can qualify for Medicaid while preserving most assets & savings!”