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Medicaid's nursing home coverage and asset transfers

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Abstract

Medicaid covers the costs of a long nursing home stay. This coverage may create an incentive for the elderly to transfer their assets to their children in order to qualify for Medicaid before entering a nursing home. Previous researchers had found little evidence that such behavior was widespread or that asset transfers were large. However, data from AHEAD suggest that the self-assessed probability of entering a nursing home is a significant determinant of the likelihood of making an asset transfer. The budgetary implications of these Medicaid-induced asset transfers are probably fairly small, but not insignificant.

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  • William F. Bassett, 2004. "Medicaid's nursing home coverage and asset transfers," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-15, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2004-15
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    Cited by:

    1. Kristin J. Kleinjans & Jinkook Lee, 2006. "The link between individual expectations and savings: Do nursing home expectations matter?," Economics Working Papers 2006-05, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.

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    Keywords

    Medicaid; Nursing home care; Inheritance and succession;
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