A Guide to Elder Planning: Everything You Need to Know to Protect Your Loved Ones and Yourself, Second Edition

13. Medicaid

Medicaid is the only public benefits program that pays for the cost of long-term care in a nursing home. It was never intended by Congress when it was first passed to be the primary provider of the cost of nursing-home care for so much of the elder population, but the combination of more and more people living to older ages and the costs of nursing-home care increasing so much has contributed to Medicaid’s prominence for many older Americans.

Over the last 20 years, there have been many changes in the Medicaid program, done more, it would appear, in an effort to reduce costs than to increase the effectiveness of the care provided. In particular, Congress passed the 1996 Kennedy-Kassenbaum law. This law originally contained a provision ...