Group Claims Filial Responsibility Laws Will Save On Medicaid Costs
Group Claims Filial Responsibility Laws Will Save on Medicaid CostsLast Updated: 8/29/2005
A conservative policy group has released an issue brief proposing that states begin enforcing filial responsibility laws in order to reduce long-term care costs. Thirty states have filial responsibility laws that require adult children to care for their indigent parents. The National Center for Policy Analysis claims that if these statutes are enforced, adult children would have to reimburse the state programs that provided care for their indigent parents.
Filial responsibility laws have traditionally not been enforced, possibly because federal law prohibits state Medicaid programs from looking at the finances of anyone other than the applicant or the applicant's spouse. The NCPA, a group whose goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, cites a 1983 report by the Health Care Financing Administration that says enforcing these statutes would have reduced Medicaid long-term care spending by $25 million, and argues that today the figure would be much higher.
To read the full brief, click here.
A conservative policy group has released an issue brief proposing that states begin enforcing filial responsibility laws in order to reduce long-term care costs. Thirty states have filial responsibility laws that require adult children to care for their indigent parents. The National Center for Policy Analysis claims that if these statutes are enforced, adult children would have to reimburse the state programs that provided care for their indigent parents.
Filial responsibility laws have traditionally not been enforced, possibly because federal law prohibits state Medicaid programs from looking at the finances of anyone other than the applicant or the applicant's spouse. The NCPA, a group whose goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, cites a 1983 report by the Health Care Financing Administration that says enforcing these statutes would have reduced Medicaid long-term care spending by $25 million, and argues that today the figure would be much higher.
To read the full brief, click here.
