How the Affordable Care Act Drove Down Personal Bankruptcy
Does everyone here understand that the ACA much promoted &quot;twenty-seven million people now have insurance&quot; is a complete farce?  The number keeps expanding, of course, and it is a tragedy of almost unimaginable proportions.<p>OK, with great claims one must offer solid evidence.  No problem, I accept this responsibility.  Thankfully this is a rather easy task.<p>The great majority of these 27 million people are on what&#x27;s known as Medicaid.<p>Is Medicaid health insurance?<p>No, it is not.  Medicaid is a loan.<p>What?<p>Medicaid is a loan from the government.  It is, if one wishes to interpret it this way, no different from taking out a home equity line of credit.<p>In other words, you must repay what you spent.<p>Yes, care you receive under Medicaid must --BY LAW-- be repaid.  And, when your lender is the government the realities of dealing with the worst possible kind of loan shark --one with overwhelming power-- can and do easily surface.<p>Medicaid enrollment as of 2016 reached over 70 million people.  Here&#x27;s the requisite chart:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statista.com&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;245347&#x2F;total-medicaid-enrollment-since-1966&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statista.com&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;245347&#x2F;total-medicaid-en...</a><p>Every single one of these people has, effectively, entered into a promissory note with the government.  They DO NOT have health insurance, they have a loan.<p>And here&#x27;s where it gets ugly:  The State, again, by law, is obligated to seek repayment for services offered and can --and does-- attach your property in the process of doing so.<p>Medicaid is a program that has convinced people they have medical insurance when, in reality, they have a loan.  And this loan can and does cost them their estate as the State automatically becomes the first lien holder once you are on Medicaid.<p>Please don&#x27;t take my word for it.  Here it is from the horse&#x27;s mouth:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.medicaid.gov&#x2F;medicaid&#x2F;eligibility&#x2F;estate-recovery&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.medicaid.gov&#x2F;medicaid&#x2F;eligibility&#x2F;estate-recover...</a><p>Here&#x27;s another source with a revelation that should terrify anyone:<p>&quot;if the property is sold while the Medicaid beneficiary is living, not only will the beneficiary cease to be eligible for Medicaid due to the cash from the sale, but the beneficiary would have to satisfy the lien by paying back the state for its coverage of care to date&quot;<p>They should have added &quot;refinanced&quot; to that statement.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elderlawanswers.com&#x2F;medicaids-power-to-recoup-benefits-paid-estate-recovery-and-liens-12018" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elderlawanswers.com&#x2F;medicaids-power-to-recoup-ben...</a><p>Medi-Cal has similar provisions:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dhcs.ca.gov&#x2F;services&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;TPLRD_ER_cont.aspx" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dhcs.ca.gov&#x2F;services&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;TPLRD_ER_cont.aspx</a><p>Another reputable source:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nolo.com&#x2F;legal-encyclopedia&#x2F;how-medicaid-recovers-the-cost-long-term-care-from-your-estate-after-you-die.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nolo.com&#x2F;legal-encyclopedia&#x2F;how-medicaid-recovers...</a><p>You might have to pay your parent&#x27;s Medicaid bill:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.agingcare.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;medicaid-repayment-of-nursing-home-estate-recovery-150497.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.agingcare.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;medicaid-repayment-of-nur...</a><p>More detail from HHS:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aspe.hhs.gov&#x2F;basic-report&#x2F;medicaid-estate-recovery" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aspe.hhs.gov&#x2F;basic-report&#x2F;medicaid-estate-recovery</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aspe.hhs.gov&#x2F;basic-report&#x2F;medicaid-liens" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aspe.hhs.gov&#x2F;basic-report&#x2F;medicaid-liens</a><p>To be clear, estate recovery was not imposed by ACA.  No, this has existed since the very start of the program.<p>What ACA has done is to systematically shove tens of millions of people into Medicaid for, dare I say, political gain.  Nothing less than putting lipstick on a pig.<p>ACA membership numbers look good to the uninformed because tens of millions of people have been hoisted onto Medicaid.  If left unchecked these numbers could easily reach into the hundred million plus range.<p>This is a tragedy. None of these people fully understand that they do not, in fact, have health insurance at all.  They are signing on to a loan, with the loan shark being the government.<p>Think about this for a moment:  This is probably the largest grab of personal property from any government anywhere in the world in the history of humanity.  And all of this property is being grabbed from the poor and lower middle class.<p>Soon one hundred million of our citizens will owe the government everything they possess in order to repay their medical bills.<p>This is theft sold as medical insurance.  When you have real insurance of any kind the insurance company doesn&#x27;t come after your estate to recover their costs.  When you have real insurance the insurance company doesn&#x27;t take a chunk out of the sale of your home while you are alive and, at the same time, kick you out of your insurance policy.<p>Medicaid is NOT insurance, it&#x27;s a dystopian reality nobody is talking about.<p>I think this is absolutely revolting.<p>Why aren&#x27;t the idiots burning down business districts during their &quot;demonstrations&quot; up in arms about this shit?  Right, it requires critical thinking skills.<p>EDIT:  I failed to add something very important here, which is what my position is on how this should work.  I apologize for not making that clear.<p>Medicaid Estate Recovery should NOT be a part of the program.<p>It should NOT exist.<p>We should provide medical care to the needy without ANY recovery requirements whatsoever.<p>If someone needs a million dollars in medical care they should receive it.<p>They should not have to worry about being on the hook to repay it in any way.<p>That is what a decent and compassionate society does and how it behaves, not by sinking it&#x27;s hooks into people who have no choice but to sign on the dotted line.<p>If this estate recovery business were done by a private insurance company they would be destroyed by both public opinion and brought-up on fraud charges.  We should demand better from our government.  We should demand that estate recovery be completely removed from Medicaid.<p>Hope that clarifies my position.