As Salvatore LoGrande fought cancer and all the pain that came with it, his daughters promised to keep him in the white, pitched roof house he worked so hard to buy all those decades ago.

So, Sandy LoGrande thought it was a mistake when, a year after her father’s death, Massachusetts billed her $177,000 for her father’s Medicaid expenses and threatened to sue for his home if she didn’t pay up quickly.

“The home was everything,” to her father said LoGrande, 57.

But the bill and accompanying threat weren’t a mistake.

Rather, it was part of a routine process the federal government requires of every state: to recover money from the assets of dead people who, in their final years, relied on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded health insurance for the poorest Americans.

This month, a Democratic lawmaker proposed scuttling the “cruel” program altogether. Critics argue the program collects too little — roughly 1% — of the more than $150 billion Medicaid spends yearly on long-term care. They also say many states fail to warn people who sign up for Medicaid that big bills and claims to their property might await their families once they die.

  • Captainvaqina@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Because we pay taxes our entire fucking lives to still have EXTRA stolen from us for “healthcare.”

    EVERY OTHER MAJOR DEVELOPED COUNTRY HAS SINGLE PAYER.

    Why are you people so fucking shortsighted and fucking selfish? You’re enabling the Republican thieves to bleed us dry because you aspire to be as greedy as they are. Absolutely insane.

    • SoylentBlake
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      8 months ago

      Socialized health care was first instituted by Otto von Bismark in 1883.

      It’s going on 141 years strong in Germany to this day, surviving two world wars and the cold war.

      Anyone who tells you health care isnt feasible is lying to you. Anyone who says it’s too expensive for the country is spreading misinformation, at best, and is a useful idiot who swallowed shareholder propaganda. Disinformation at worst, as they probably own said shares, and volunteer their time to deny old ladies cancer treatment while taking a break from suffacating service puppies.

      Insurance, is singularly the only industry that benefits the most the larger it gets, it’s literally the founding premise of insurance. Literally. Any insurance that isn’t national is less effective and more costly to the consumer, end of story. There is no debating it, that’s HOW it works, if you think otherwise, youve swallowed someone else’s Kool-aid.

      All insurance should be nationalized. All of it.

      • rihatsu
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        8 months ago

        Insurance is designed to give people peace of mind against life’s many what-ifs.

        What if my house burns down? It’s not likely but I have insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding it and replacing my stuff. What if get into a car crash? It’s not likely, but I have insurance to cover the cost of repairing or replacing my car and (depending on fault) the other vehicles involved in the crash. What if I need medical care? This is not something that insurance is really designed to handle, and the entire American health care system has twisted itself around this fucked up premise. We don’t need to nationalize health insurance, we need to abandon the idea that going to the doctor for routine care is something that you need insurance to pay for.