Topic:
Medicaid eligibility rules
(Feigenholtz, D-Chicago; Steans, D-Chicago) is supposed to eliminate Illinois’ $2.7 billion Medicaid funding gap. It repeals the compromise of the Medicaid eligibility rules negotiated last fall between the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Some of these changes include the following: (1) A home transferred into a trust after the bill becomes law may not be considered homestead property. If the home was transferred into a trust before the bill becomes law, it prevents a person from being eligible for long-term care if the person’s equity interest in this homestead exceeds the minimum home equity as allowed under federal law. (2) People over the age of 65 can no longer participate in a federally created OBRA Pooled Trust unless the beneficiary is a ward of the county public guardian or the State guardian. These parts of this Act (in Section 75) took effect June 14, 2012.