Post Discussion: Medicaid Planning: Ethical or Not?

As older people and their families have become more aware of the cost of long-term care, middle-class families have found ways of qualifying for Medicaid (Moody & Sasser, 2014).

By divesting their assets families have tried to avoid the harsh requirements of Medicaid spend-down often times in an effort to leave an inheritance to their children.

Critics argue that this form of Medicaid planning is socially irresponsible. When Medicaid spend-down becomes a form of estate planning, critics say, it is a means of cheating the government and using public money intended for those in genuine poverty (Moody & Sasser, 2014).

Elder law attorneys on the other hand believe that families should realistically plan ahead for nursing home costs and that this planning may involve Medicaid. Planning ahead to qualify for Medicaid, they believe, is not immoral or illegal (Moody & Sasser, 2014).

In your post, take a position for or against Medicaid planning and defend it.

Support your statements with evidence from the Required Studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.

• Ethics in an Aging Society (Moody, 1996)

  • Chapter 5: The Long Good-by: The Ethics of Nursing Home Placement

  • Chapter 6: Ethical Dilemmas in the Nursing Home

• Read

  • Long-Term Care Ethics - Ethical Issues in Long-term Care Decision-Making Retrieved from http://medicine.jrank.org/pages/1063/Long-Term-Care-Ethics.html

  • Medicaid Planning: Can It Be Justified? Legal and Ethical Implications of Medicaid Planning (2002), Retrieved from http://open.wmitchell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1598&context=wmlr

  • Should Families Provide for Their Own? (2010), Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/26809_5.pdf
    NOTE: ONLY PAGES 200-215 ARE REQUIRED READING