LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Medicaid is no longer just for ‘freeloaders’

To the Editor:

I read today that the Republican party has proposed a budget with huge cuts to Medicaid.

I can imagine Republican party leaders patting themselves on their backs and gloating over all those freeloaders who won’t be getting medical care that they have not earned, if this bill passes.

Apparently most political leaders, particularly those who will not read more than a single page of information about any subject, do not realize that Medicaid provides the funding for nursing homes, which supports most of the long-term care of the elderly.

Even older substantial middle-class individuals rarely have accumulated enough wealth to pay $9,000 a month to keep Mama in a place where her illnesses, frequently including dementia, can be handled professionally and with dignity for very long.

As you think about your own future as you age, I ask you to make a calculation. If you are married, take your joint income (not including interest and dividend income) and subtract what it will cost for one of you to stay home. Subtract what is left from $9,000. That will be the amount that you will spend every month for one person in a nursing home. Divide the value of everything you own, except the house that one of you will continue to live in, by that amount. That should tell you how long you have before the money is all gone.

For example, if your joint income is $2,500 a month, and one of you can live in the home for $1,500 a month, your current income can contribute $1,000 to nursing home costs each month. The other $8,000 will have to come from your savings and investments. If you have $250,000 saved, not including your home, it will all be gone in 2 1/2 years.

With the restrictions in place now, it takes some planning to avoid this result. If Medicaid is defunded, no amount of planning will save you.

Michael C. Hall

Albany

Michael C. Hall is a principal in the Albany-based Hall & Williamson PC law firm