Law Commons^™

The Medicaid Cost Crisis: Are There Solutions To The Financial Problems Facing Middle-Class Americans Who Require Long-Term Health Care, Kenneth Hubbard

Cleveland State Law Review

Medicaid was originally designed as a welfare program to provide healthcare to the poor. Despite the initial intentions of Congress, Medicaid has instead become "a multi-billion-dollar insurance policy" for elderly middle-class Americans who require long-term health care. The Medicaid crisis has been described as "a battle between elderly people's desire for long-term care coverage and their concomitant reluctance to pay for it themselves." This battle is waged between the older and younger generations, commencing when the younger generation observes that their inheritance is growing smaller or disappearing altogether due to the immense cost of their parents' long-term health care.