Patricia Schroeder: “The fact is that now, after what the Committee on Commerce did, we took away the spousal impoverishment thing. It would…”

“The fact is that now, after what the Committee on Commerce did, we took away the spousal impoverishment thing. It would not just be the mother and her home, it is everything that couple owns must be sold before they can go onto Medicaid. Everything they own. The remaining spouse, who is still healthy, ends up with a big goose egg. How are they going to live the rest of their life? Suppose they are 80 at this point, and their home has now been sold and their car has now been sold? That is why the Women's Caucus worked so hard in 1988 to say, no, no, no, divide the couple's assets and make sure both of them do not have to be impoverished to get one of them the kind of care they need, because what happens to the one that is left, the survivor? Now, of course, they can also go after adult children. They are repealing that, so they could also come after this woman's home that was in the grocery store. It would not just be her mother's home she had to cash out. They could now put a lien on her home to help pay, because of what they did in the Committee on Commerce. But to have the response be, well, we really should lower estate taxes on people, that is ridiculous.”