From: johnl@iecc.com   
      
   >> In this case, it's Medicaid.  The usual progression is that a sick   
   >> old person spends all of his or her assets on care and becomes   
   >> indigent, at which point Medicaid kicks in and will pay for the   
   >> nursing home. Around here it seems like the majority of people in   
   >> nursing homes (as opposed to fancy places like Kendall) are in that   
   >> position.   
   >   
   >Ah, okay; I thought they were mutually exclusive.  It seems like smart   
   >seniors would give all their money to their kids (or put it in a trust   
   >they control) and declare themselves indigent right away rather than   
   >blow all their money on nursing homes and then end up indigent anyway.   
      
   The government is not totally stupid, and there are rules to make that   
   difficult.  Remember that a lot of people end up at retirement age   
   with very few assets other than perhaps their house, and that's hard   
   to hide.  But from what I've heard, the process is quite unpleasant,   
   and the asset clawback quite aggressive.   
      
   >Obamacare contains specific provisions for such innovative approaches,   
   >which previously were only funded as experiments requiring extensive   
   >paperwork and approvals--even if you were just copying a program that   
   >had already been approved (and was working well) elsewhere.   
      
   My Republican friends tell me that can't possibly be true since   
   Obamacare is by definition a failure.   
      
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