11/20/2013 – Medicaid Help Without Falling Into Poverty

Tactics to keep elderly people’s assets and income within their family’s control while still qualifying them for Medicaid were common. Loopholes were exploited.

But legislative changes in the late 1980s and a major overhaul in 2003 have closed some loopholes, and the eligibility requirements for Medicaid have been eased; they will relax further on Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, in an expansion that some but not all states have embraced. Such changes allow elderly people to keep more assets and income and still qualify for Medicaid.