Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Low Obamacare Premiums to Soften Blow for Those Losing Medicaid

Ganny Belloni
March 16, 2023, 5:44 PM

CMS will take active role during Medicaid eligibility checks

All states required to take 14 months to complete checks

One-third of the millions of individuals expected to lose Medicaid coverage as eligibility checks resume this spring will qualify for Affordable Care Act coverage with low or no premiums, a top Medicaid official said.

The Department of Health and Human Services believes the majority of those whose Medicaid eligibility will be redetermined will remain eligible, and the government is actively collaborating with states to make sure beneficiaries don’t lose coverage because of administrative issues, Daniel Tsai, director of the federal Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, said Thursday in an interview with reporters

see full article at :

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/low-obamacare-premiums-to-soften-blow-for-those-losing-medicaid

#AffordableCareAct #DepartmentofHealthandHumanServices #CenterforMedicaidandCHIPServices #DanielTsai #Medicaid #CMS

Column: Retirees and debt: How to avoid the worst traps

Excerpt from: Reuters (click for full article)

 

If you're strapped for cash or have a poor credit rating, the offer would sound tempting: upfront cash in return for your future pension payments.

But it's a debt trap, according to a recent expose by The New York Times, a "pension advance" loan charging sky-high interest rates. A Times analysis of these deals found effective interest rates ranging from 27 percent to as high as 106 percent.

The companies that market these loans like to target unsuspecting military veterans, teachers, firefighters and police officers.

Pension advances are part of a bigger picture of rising debt burdens carried by a growing number of older Americans in the wake of the Great Recession.

Credit cards pose the most serious threat, with interest rates not much lower than the predatory pension loans - average monthly interest rates ranging from 11 percent to 16 percent, according to Bankrate.com.

Retiring with Debt? Join the Club.

Excerpt from: AARP (click for full article)

 

Paying off the mortgage before you head into the land of fixed-income living, otherwise known as retirement, is becoming an unattainable goal for a growing number of people.

A survey by the Securian Financial Group found that about half of 526 retirees polled in March carried mortgage debt into retirement. And it appears that even greater numbers of boomers will follow suit.

[Read: Fixing One Family's Finances]

The poll asked 495 pre-retirees ages 50 and older if they expected to carry mortgage debt into retirement; 67 percent said yes. In similar surveys by Securian in 2007 and 2009, just 30 percent of near retirees said the same.

Michelle Hall, a market research manager at Securian, called the latest findings troubling.

The Grave is No Barrier to Identity Thieves

Excerpt from: German Law Group, P.C. (click for full article)

 

If you’ve ever been the victim of identity theft you know how aggravating it can be. Yet, even if you haven’t been victimized by identity thieves you may still have to deal with the problem because a thief has stolen the identity of a deceased relative.

According to a new study about 2 ½ million deceased Americans have their identities stolen every year. When this happens, the former spouses and family members of the deceased person are often left to deal with the mess.

According to financial security firm ID Analytics, identity thieves stole the Social Security numbers of about 1.6 million Americans last year. In another 800,000 instances, criminals used a deceased person’s identity to apply for credit cards, cell phone service, or other lines of credit. This type of identity theft can cause a headache for the deceased person’s family members, but they won’t be responsible for paying back any debt.

Younger Generations Struggle with Wealth-Building

Excerpt from: Wealth Straegies Journal 2.0 (click for more information)

 

A recent study published by the Urban Institute reports that individuals up to age 40 have accrued less wealth than their parents did at the same age, despite the average wealth of Americans doubling over the last fifty years.  The report references a broad range of economic factors which contribute to suppress wealth-building among younger Americans including stagnant pay, high student debt, and fluctuations and influences created by the housing market.   Experts claim that a sustained job and wage growth would cure many of the ills facing younger workers, but the delayed or diminished wealth accumulation might still have a lasting impact on their finances.

See Annie Lowrey, Younger Generations Lag Parents in Wealth-Building, NYTimes.com (March 14, 2013).

Retirement Is No Holiday From Debt

Excerpt from: Wall Street Journal (click for full article)

 

Patricia Dudek, an attorney specializing in elder law in Farmington Hills, Mich., sees many seniors running into debt problems because their financial plans never accounted for sharply rising property taxes. Seniors can appeal to their local tax collector to lower their bills, she notes, and many states offer seniors special property-tax abatements.

The next step is managing the debt itself. Many turn to credit-consolidation companies rather than do it themselves, but it's an avenue that requires treading carefully.

"You have to be really cautious," says Ms. Dudek, "there are some scams out there."

The No. 1 rule of thumb: Never make a big upfront payment to a debt consolidator. The New York Better Business Bureau provides tips on debt-counseling programs and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling can
provide help locating a debt counselor.

What if the Elderly Just Stopped Paying Their Debt?

Excerpt from: Find Law (click for full article)

 

Generally, a household can file for a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. With Chapter 7 bankruptcy, an individual can discharge his debt and receive a fresh start. In return, some of the debtor's property is gathered and sold off to help repay the debt. In contrast, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy simply reorganizes your debt and sets up a repayment plan. You do not have to liquidate your assets with a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but you also don't immediately discharge your debt either.

It was reported that the Kansas couple was offered bankruptcy as a solution, but they chose not take that route. The couple felt responsible for their debt and for that they were named "Clients of the Year" by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Op-Ed: Advocacy Needed To Push Initiatives For Americans With Disabilities

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

In the coming weeks and months, Congress will enact sweeping reductions in federal spending, finalize the 2013 federal budget and raise the debt ceiling. The cuts that will come with these decisions are not merely numbers on a ledger; they will decimate programs that directly impact the lives of the most vulnerable among us and the ability of social service agencies to serve them.

For individuals with disabilities who are aspiring for healthy, independent lives, this is a particularly critical time. The unemployment rates we associate with the slow recovery from the Great Recession pale in comparison to the persistent lack of employment opportunities that have ever been available to the disability community. The disincentive to work inherent in our social safety net, and the inability for those relying on it to build assets, makes upward mobility even more difficult.

The growing challenge for non-profit agencies to provide home- and community-based care makes independent living for many individuals with disabilities an impossibility.

Shikha Dalmia: Obamacare's Medicaid expansion is an offer states can't refuse

Excerpt from: The Examiner (click for full article)

 

The conventional wisdom is that they are doing so because of the irresistible lure of "free" federal money. Obamacare is offering to pick up 100 percent of the tab for new enrollees for the first two years and then 90 percent until 2020. But that's not all. Extending Medicaid will mean Michigan, for example, will be able to offload what it spends on the mental care of some uninsured residents onto the federal government, saving the state $2 billion over 10 years -- more than enough to cover its share. In effect, as Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder put it, the state will be able to insure 470,000 more people without having to spend a dime till about 2024 -- by which time he'll be safely out of office, of course.

But a 2011 Congressional Budget Office report projected that by 2025, every penny of revenue in the federal budget will go toward servicing the national debt and entitlements: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This will inevitably force Uncle Sam to pare back its promised payments to states, leaving them holding the bag, one big reason why state Medicaid budgets are in such a mess to begin with.

The Medicaid leap

Excerpt from: Chicago Tribune (click for full article)

 

Businesses in the state would face higher costs for many lower-paid workers who would have qualified for Medicaid under expansion. Obamacare compels many employers to provide insurance for full-time workers or pay fines for failing to do so.

A number of Republican governors have rejected Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. Illinois, controlled by Democrats, is expected to buy in to the home state's president's signature health care plan. But Illinois leaders need to remember this state is cratering in debt.

They ought to explore alternatives. Among the more promising ideas: Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, and Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, are pressing the Obama administration to approve a partial Medicaid expansion that would cover people up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Those with incomes up to 138 percent of poverty level would choose whether to be covered by Medicaid or by federally subsidized insurance obtained through a state insurance exchange. Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has proposed a similar idea that he said would cut Medicaid rolls, cover more lower-income people via health exchanges, and slash by half the number of uninsured Wisconsin residents.

Illinois lawmakers, see what options are available. Think before you leap.

Put Your Accounts in Your Daughter’s Name — What Could Go Wrong?

Excerpt from: Fleming & Curti, PLC (click for full article)

 

Seniors are subjected to a constant drumbeat of advice: make sure you have no assets in your own name, or you will lose them to the nursing home. Transfer everything to your children to “protect” your assets. Is it good advice?

We usually counsel against such transfers. They are a bad idea for several reasons, but chiefly for these two reasons:

1. Such transfers are not likely to work, given the five-year look-back period for Medicaid eligibility. In other words, if you make such a transfer shortly before you go to the nursing home, you won’t be eligible for government assistance with your long-term care costs for up to five years — or even longer, in some cases.
2. Even if you successfully “protect” your assets from your own nursing home costs, you have just subjected them to the recipient’s creditors and claims.