Petition to Stop Estate Recovery
 

This site covers two issues facing Americans today.
The first is the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program. This site provides information and background on this discriminatory legislation Congress put in place in 1993 to take homes and assets away from Americans who cannot afford home health care or nursing home care. We have provided a link to a petition to stop this cruel legislation that has been terrorizing millions of Americans for over 15 years.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are cut each year in the budget, while corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy keep going up exponentially. Corporations NEVER have to pay back their government assistance and do not have to be impoverished or bankrupt to receive it. Americans do. Yet corporate hand outs cost tax payers more and more each year.

The second issue is Universal Single Payer Healthcare. This site provides information and links to more information and organizations fighting for this important piece of legislation, H.R.676. Please visit their sites, sign their petitions and join their fight.

Please read about both issues and
PLEASE sign our petition to stop Medicaid Estate Recovery Program!!!
Help the elderly and disabled...help yourself.

Federal and State Government Steals Homes and Assets
from the Elderly and Disabled!
Sign the petition to stop this
Help us reach our goal of 10,000 signatures!

Stop Medicaid Estate Recovery Program!
Stop Congress from Stealing Your Home!

Read more about it here...

Healthcare is not a luxury afforded ONLY to the rich and members of Congress.

Federal and State Government Steals Homes and Assets
from the Elderly and Disabled!
Sign the petition to stop this

Stop Medicaid Estate Recovery Program!
Stop Congress from Stealing Your Home!

    Not only does Congress feel you and your family do not deserve health care but since 1993 the United States Government has engaged in Homeland Terrorism. Congress passed the OBRA '93 which required that all 50 states recover all Medicaid money paid out to provide Home Care Services (attendant care) and Nursing Home services. They did not limit how the states would collect money from the families of the recipient. In other words Congress has mandated that states terrorize the elderly and disabled.
    Home Health Care services start at $30,000 a year for minimal hours and Nursing Home care averages $75,000 a year and up. These costs are rising every year. Unless you plan on making at least $100,000 a year or more in your retirement or can guarantee you will never get sick or have an accident THIS AFFECTS YOU!!!!
    It is called the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP). It is a Federal law requiring that states make the families of the recipient of the attendant care or nursing home pay back all the money the state spent on their care. A vast majority of Americans cannot afford $30,000 a year for attendant care or $75,000 a year for a nursing home. So most people need help from the government with the cost.
    To be eligible to get help you and your family must first take a vow of poverty. You must get rid of all your assets except your home and a car. You and your spouse must promise to stay below the poverty line while only you receive medical assistance. Your family goes without medical care or into debt paying for their care because they live in poverty so they can't afford care. Upon your death the state presents your family with a bill for your care. It does not matter that you and your spouse has paid Social Security tax all your life.
    Now, since you and your family had to stay poor while you received care they cannot pay it back. So the state takes what you do have. YOUR HOME!!!!! The state can take your home, your bank account, your Trust Funds, etc.. Whatever your family has that is worth anything. Liens are put on homes.
    Making the recipient's family pay the state back is also unfair because the family, including the one receiving the service has no control over the cost nor the billing. The state sets the rate of pay and then pays the agency. The client has no control over how much the state is paying the agency. So with home health care the state can be paying the agency the same amount every month even if the client did not receive services for days. There is no way for the client to know this or regulate this. so the family has to pay the state back for services that were never received but the state paid the agency anyway. With nursing homes the state could be billed for supplies that the client never used or received. There is no way for the family to know this because no one sees the bill or goes through the family for payment. The states just pay the same amount every month. so because the state does not regulate payments the families are liable. The state  spends the clients money with absolutely no monitoring and then bills the family for services and supplies not received upon the client's death. This predatory loan is a blank check the state writes and then holds the family responsible.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS MADE YOU A LIABILITY TO YOUR FAMILY!!!!!!!!

    Everything you worked for and built up to leave your family is taken by the state government!!!! You are not allowed to leave your family ANYTHING!!!! That is your punishment for not making $100,000 or more in your retirement or for being disabled!!!!

Unless you plan on making at least $100,000 a year or more in your retirement or can guarantee you will never get sick or have an accident THIS IS YOUR FUTURE!!!!

    People with physical disabilities in need of attendant care to get in and out of bed and dressed live this nightmare their entire lives!! They are forbidden to work. They cannot find a job that pays enough money to pay for their attendant care and still stay just above the poverty level and insurance companies DO NOT pay for attendant care, wheelchair repairs, or medical supplies,. If someone with a disability asks for government assistance with the cost they are punished for being disabled and forced into poverty. Then when they die what little they did have is taken from their family.

Still think MERP should happen to defray the costs of Medicaid?
Don't let Congressional lies convince you or scare you!
        *    The Department of Health and Human Services has studied the recovery rates for all the states. (See the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Estate Recovery Collections, September, 2005) At best states only recover less than 1% of what they paid out. By the time court fees and filing fees and labor costs are calculated many states found that it actually was costing taxpayers money not saving it!
        *    MERP specifically targets the elderly and disabled, our most vulnerable, in need, population. MERP specifically targets ONLY THOSE PEOPLE WHO WORKED THEIR WHOLE LIVES AND HAVE SOMETHING TO TAKE!!!!!  If you never work and never get married and have a family you are safe.
        *    Medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.
        *    Congress keeps telling us Social Security and Medicaid cost too much money and keep cutting it each year. The reality is Social Security, which includes Medicaid, only takes up 4-5% of the Federal budget.
        *    Congress says we cannot afford to provide health care for everyone, especially the elderly and disabled. They do not have a problem with spending $27 billion on Pork Barrel Projects in 1996 and $92 billion on corporate welfare (that's cash not tax cuts) (Kiplinger Business Resource Center) to Fortune 500 Companies (not small businesses, but oil companies and corporations) in 1996. Those amounts increase every year exponentially!!! (Cato Congressional Testimony) There are no restrictions to be eligible for Corporate welfare and they NEVER have to pay it back, unlike Medicare and Medicaid!
        *    Social Security was never a part of the Federal budget. Social Security taxes were put in a Trust fund and only used for Social Security payments. "In 1969, the so-called ''unified budget" was instituted. By combining Social Security with other taxes, President Johnson could claim that the US was running a surplus, even though it was actually being bled dry by the Vietnam War. To this day, the unified budget makes military spending look like a smaller percentage of discretionary federal spending than it really is." (taken from Take the Rich Off Welfare by Mark Zepezauer and Arthur Naiman, 1996) Now it is part of the Federal Budget and funneled into other programs. It was never meant to be part of the Federal budget and used to pay for other programs!
        *    Services provided by family caregivers in the U.S. are valued at $257 billion, more than double the combined spending on home care and nursing home care. Congress still thinks the families owe them money?
        *    People with physical disabilities needing attendant care to get dressed and in and out of bed are discouraged and even punished for going to college and for working. Most jobs do not pay enough money to cover the costs of wheelchair repairs, medical supplies, and attendant care. Attendant care alone can start at $30,000 a year. Insurance companies do NOT pay for these necessities. People with disabilities need assistance getting up to go to work. To get government assistance they have to quit their jobs to have someone to get them up in the morning. Why? Now they don't have a job to go to. If they work they will lose the services. They are punished for working! People with physical mobility disabilities have a 69% unemployment rate! Wonder why? They are not allowed to work in America. As a result they are forced on Medicaid and therefore forced into poverty, then their families have to pay all the money back. It is a Federal predatory loan, NOT welfare. The United States Healthcare system discriminates against the disabled, elderly, and working class.

Budget and funding is not the problem. How Congress is distributing the money is!!!!

This barbaric act is anti-family, anti-labor, and nothing more than a HOME GROWN ACT OF TERRORISM!!!
    As a result many people opt out of assistance and die at home never receiving the care they needed. The caregivers, usually the spouse or an adult child, get ill and die at a much younger age because of the incredible demands on caregivers, emotionally and physically.

Sign the petition to stop this
Federally endorsed Terrorism!
Stop Medicaid Estate Recovery Program!
Stop Congress from Stealing Your Home!

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Universal Health Care NOW!!!!!
 

    Notice I did not say Socialized Medicine. There is a difference. Canada has Universal one payer Health Care. CANADA DOES NOT HAVE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! CANADA DOES NOT MAKE PATIENTS WAIT FOR MEDICALLY NECESSARY PROCEDURES OR OPERATIONS!!! Read that again! CANADA DOES NOT MAKE PATIENTS WAIT FOR MEDICALLY NECESSARY PROCEDURES OR OPERATIONS!!!
    There is absolutely no reason for Americans not to have Universal Health Care! No reason, except greed and ignorance. Don't be ignorant. Educate yourself about Universal one payer not-for-profit Health Care! Then vote morally and ethically, not by popularity.
    Education is a right and so is health care. You're already paying for it so why not get it?
    A majority of Americans, Doctors, and Nurses want Single Payer Healthcare H.R.676!
 

YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE ONLY ONE ACCIDENT OR ONE ILLNESS AWAY FROM BANKRUPTCY!!!
It CAN happen to you!
Don't let it!

    The United States Government, Congress, the Administration, treat the elderly and disabled horridly! Hopefully you will never suffer a disability but you will get old. How do you want to be treated?

        *    Medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.
        *    Congress keeps telling us Social Security and Medicaid cost too much money and keep cutting it each year. The reality is Social Security, which includes Medicaid, only takes up 4-5% of the Federal budget.
        *    Congress says we cannot afford to provide health care for everyone, especially the elderly and disabled. They do not have a problem with spending $27 billion on Pork Barrel Projects in 1996 and $92 billion on corporate welfare (that's cash not tax cuts) (Kiplinger Business Resource Center) to Fortune 500 Companies (not small businesses, but oil companies and corporations) in 1996. Those amounts increase every year exponentially!!! (Cato Congressional Testimony) There are no restrictions to be eligible for Corporate welfare and they NEVER have to pay it back, unlike Medicare and Medicaid!
        *    Social Security was never a part of the Federal budget. Social Security taxes were put in a Trust fund and only used for Social Security payments. "In 1969, the so-called ''unified budget" was instituted. By combining Social Security with other taxes, President Johnson could claim that the US was running a surplus, even though it was actually being bled dry by the Vietnam War. To this day, the unified budget makes military spending look like a smaller percentage of discretionary federal spending than it really is." (taken from Take the Rich Off Welfare by Mark Zepezauer and Arthur Naiman, 1996) Now it is part of the Federal Budget and funneled into other programs. It was never meant to be part of the Federal budget and used to pay for other programs!
        *    People with physical disabilities needing attendant care to get dressed and in and out of bed are discouraged and even punished for going to college and for working. Most jobs do not pay enough money to cover the costs of wheelchair repairs, medical supplies, and attendant care. Attendant care alone can start at $30,000 a year. Insurance companies do NOT pay for these necessities. People with disabilities need assistance getting up to go to work. To get government assistance they have to quit their jobs to have someone to get them up in the morning. Why? Now they don't have a job to go to. If they work they will lose the services. They are punished for working!

        *    People with physical mobility disabilities have a 69% unemployment rate! Wonder why? They are not allowed to work in America. As a result they are forced on Medicaid and therefore forced into poverty, then their families have to pay all the money back.

        *    It is a Federal predatory loan, NOT welfare. The United States Healthcare system discriminates against the disabled, elderly, and working class.

Budget and funding is not the problem. How Congress is distributing the money is!!!!

    Here are some links and documents to educate yourself about Universal Healthcare. Don't let private Insurance companies and their paid for candidates scare you any longer. Know the REAL facts then sign the petition for H.R.676 Universal Healthcare and vote for your health and your family's health.

The American Medical Student Association has a great site with many, many resources and fact sheets on Universal one payer not-for-profit Healthcare in the United States, the arguments for and against and all kinds of information and data on Canada's one payer Universal Healthcare, including facts on waiting time for procedures. Get it straight.
2008 Presidential Candidate's Stance on Healthcare Issues by the American Medical Student Association where they promote Universal Healthcare.

Want to know how Americans are going to pay for Universal healthcare. SURPRISE! You are already paying for it and paying more than other countries. The catch is YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE NOT RECEIVING THE HEALTHCARE YOU ARE PAYING FOR!!!!! Find out more here.

At this site there is a fact sheet about Healthcare in the United States, how we rank in quality care (not well at all) and how other countries compare. Click here for the facts NOT rhetoric!

For more information on Single Payer Not for Profit Healthcare H.R.676 and to sign their petitions visit;

Healthcare Now
http://www.healthcare-now.org/

Physicians for a National Health Program
http://www.pnhp.org/

They are excellent resources and very active advocates for getting health care for EVERY American. Please join them.

Here are links to even more resources. Click Here.

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Your are not alone!
 
This many people are with you so far.

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The People's Right to Healthcare.