MA Lawmakers Approve Gay Medicaid
Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, took another step toward full equality yesterday:
The Massachusetts state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill granting married same-sex couples equal Medicaid benefits, gay rights group MassEquality reported.Gov. Deval Patrick is expected to sign the bill, which was passed by the state House on July 15.
The lawmakers’ actions defy the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which bans legally wed same-sex couples from receiving federally provided benefits such as Medicaid, the “safety-net” health care program administered by the states.
Supporters say Massachusetts can circumvent federal law by using only state dollars to pay for gay couples’ benefits.
The move will especially benefit senior citizens, who face eviction and poverty under the current laws, say activists.
Maybe someone can explain this better, but it seems to me this works against folks — a low income person would be denied Medicaid based on the partner’s income or the partner’s assets would be taken to pay for the person’s health care.
I mean, fair is fair, since federally married people are subject to this, but it seems part of the “duties and obligations” side of marriage, not the benefits side.
Kurt, if my husband and I don’t have a lot of money saved, and he develops alzheimer’s and needs to enter a nursing home medicaid would pay for these expenses, and I would still be allowed to bring in a couple thousand dollars a month before I was expected to chip in, and as long as I live in our house it can not be touched in order to pay for the nursing home.
This is a good thing.
sweet. i love knowing those anti-gay bastards will be required to pony up taxes that will only benefit gay couples.
But homes (along with a car, trade tools, a tractor and a $3K burial account) are not counted as assets in Medicaid unless the beneficiary states that he does not intend to return (and just needs to state that, no matter how unlikely that is). A person not federally married would never be required to pay any of his partners expenses and would never have his income or assets counted towards the partner’s Medicaid eligibility. So you could not only bring in a couples of thousand dollars, but any amount whatsoever. Under this new law, the partner will have to “pony up”. As I said, maybe that is what is fair. I’m just suggesting that in most cases this will not be in the economic interest of gay couples.