Voice for Refuge
Vermont had a difficult summer. Every one of us was directly or indirectly impacted by flooding. I hope you all are as grateful as I am to be here in Winooski together. As August comes to a close we have a lot to look forward to with the kids back at school, our new Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria and of course, Winooski Pride on September 9th. So welcome to the start of a great season.
Last week I received an interesting email from Kaitlin at an organization called Voice for Refuge. She asked me to take a pledge as a leader in Vermont to welcome refugees and immigrants to our state. My only pause was to do some quick research on the organization. The community we all deserve is one of welcome, hope and purpose.
I wrote Kaitlyn back that same day and told her about something I'm working on at the state level. Its a bill to address Medicaid Estate Recovery, H.397.
Medicaid is government funded health insurance-you might know it as Green Mountain Care, Dr.Dynasaur or one of several other special types of Medicaid Vermont offers. A family of four earning $3,450 per month meets the base financial eligibility criteria to receive Medicaid. Medicaid estate recovery is the collection of assets like cars, homes, money, etc... from someone on medicaid to recover health care debts beyond their Medicaid covered health expenses. In just the first three months of 2022 our state Medicaid office collected over $557,308 through estate recovery (DVHA Annual Report, 2021, p.32).
Estate recovery has been studied extensively and shown to contribute to generational poverty, to target racial minorities and contribute to wealth inequality. Under federal law states are required to recover Medicaid debts from individuals, but we can and should protect as many people as we can from these collections. We can begin to stop this right now at the state level by expanding protections so Medicaid cannot collect from families who have the least to give.
Currently our state policy protects assets that pass to heirs who either have income below 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($90,000 for a family of 4) and those who have contributed significantly to help "delay or avoid nursing home placement”. Additional protections are made for homes valued less than $125,000.
Adding protections for assets of anyone who has refugee status would allow someone who begins anew here in Vermont to leave the world with beace of mind knowing the things that they worked for in their new life here belong to their heirs, not the government. Efforts to rebuild a life should not be lost to the failures of our health care system, leaving their loved ones at risk of repeating the same cycle.
No one eligible for a federal benefit program should have their only income-producing asset seized to pay inflated health care costs. Their heirs or loved ones should have the opportunity to inherit any business, farm or other income producing asset that will allow them to have hope, provide for their family and make valuable contributions to their communities. I'm proposing we add a section to protect sole income-producing assets of medicaid beneficiaries from estate recovery.
Adding these two provisions to the existing Medicaid estate recovery law in Vermont will help address generational poverty and wealth inequity. My hope is that when the legislative session begins we will welcome good change. Speaking of medicaid please rememberto complete your renewal forms that were mailed to you if you have Dr.Dynasaur or Medicaid. Go to Vermont Health Connect on Facebook or dvha. Vermont. gov/unwinding for more info.
Please dont hesitate to reach out if I can assist with anything.
Daisy