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Elderly
protest plan to seize homes
from
nursing home patients
WOAI,
July 15, 2003
SAN ANTONIO - Elderly Texans and others angry over a new law
allowing the state to seize the homes of some nursing home patients after
they die rather than allow the houses to go to relatives want the governor
to reconsider the measure during the special legislative session.
Even Gov. Rick Perry, who signed the provision that was part of House Bill
2292 into law last month, is expressing concern over the measure. The
governor has added 29 items to the special session agenda, but hasn't said
whether he'll permit lawmakers to reconsider HB 2292.
Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, has already filed a bill to
repeal the measure. Two other San Antonio Democrats, Sen. Leticia Van de
Putte and Rep. Carlos Uresti, who carried the original provision, said the
state must comply with federal law on estate recovery or risk more than
$2.2 billion in Medicaid money.
McClendon said her constituents' opinions prompted her to file House Bill
28, the repeal measure.
"They feel very threatened by the thought that they may have their
homesteads taken away from them upon their death," McClendon told the
San Antonio Express-News in Tuesday's editions. "They understand
there are exemptions. They are afraid those exemptions may not
apply."
But Uresti and Van de Putte said they're convinced the provision is
needed. Texas had been one of three states not in compliance with the
federal law, which dates back to 1993.
A spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
has said that federal funding can be at risk if states don't comply with
federal rules, but that there had been no pending action against Texas.
Uresti has called McClendon's bill is premature.
"I feel confident she's going to be relieved - and if her
constituents are concerned, they're going to be relieved - when they see
how this bill is fully enacted," said Uresti. "We're not taking
away poor people's homes."
Protections were cited by Van de Putte, including a provision that homes
beneath a certain value would be exempt.
Perry's office has received 82 phone calls protesting the provision. Of 42
e-mails and letters, some expressed concern or asked for more information,
but most were clearly opposed.
"Reminds me of Hitler getting the gold fillings out of the inmates'
teeth in the concentration camps before they went to the ovens,"
wrote a Mesquite man.
An e-mail from another man with the subject line "You've Got Some
Nerve" stated his elderly parents were "horrified and scared
that all they've worked for and all that they hoped to pass on to their
kids and grandchild will be gone."
A woman who said she is caretaker for a 98-year-old aunt who is bedridden
and living in a nursing home, wrote: "Her only possession is her
house. I was keeping it in order to have a means by which to have enough
money to pay for her funeral expenses."
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