Increasing Medicaid's Stagnant Asset Test For People Eligible For Medicare And Medicaid Will Help Vulnerable Seniors.

ABSTRACT: Low-income Medicare beneficiaries rely on Medicaid for supplemental coverage but must meet income and asset tests to qualify. We examined states' income and asset tests for full-benefit Medicaid during the period 2006-18 and examined how alternative asset tests would affect eligibility for community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries ages sixty-five and older. Most states have not updated the dollar limit of Medicaid's asset test since 1989, making the asset test increasingly restrictive in inflation-adjusted terms. We estimated that increasing Medicaid's asset limit by the Consumer Price Index, to Medicare Savings Program levels, or to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for couples would increase Medicaid eligibility by 1.7 percent, 4.4 percent, and 7.5 percent, respectively. Simplifying Me

SUBMITTER: Cornelio N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11558658 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature