title: The middle-class elderly and Medicaid financial eligibility policies for nursing home coverage.
abstract: Benefits for the middle-class elderly are generally distributed through such social insurance programs as Social Security Old Age Insurance and Medicare. The inclusion of long-term nursing home services for the elderly in Medicaid provides an opportunity to gauge the relationship of the "middle class" to a means-tested public assistance program. This article develops the analysis by focusing on the nature of the recent changes in financial eligibility, the use of so-called Medicaid planning strategies by the elderly to gain eligibility, and a discussion of competing scenarios for the evolution of these policies in the near future. The analysis finds that the middle-class elderly are both an elusive socioeconomic group and a powerful cultural symbol which simultaneously constrains and supports their inclusion as recipients of Medicaid nursing home coverage.
authors.affiliation: Ohio Wesleyan University, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ramsay
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004608:Eligibility Determination / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000191:economics*; D011050:Policy Making; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States