Ronald Morton's Elder Law Blog

That is One Lucky Dog!

Here

Medicaid May Need an Additional $187 Million

If congress does not extend the temporary aid provided to state Medicaid programs, Mississippi will have to come up with an additional $187 million to cover the shortfall next year.  More here.  Congress, in the face of mid term elections and a public that is fed up with the deficit spending that has placed this country into $13 trillion in debt, is hesitant to pass the additional spending extension.  Congress' new found fiscal responsibility will come at a big cost to Mississippi, which will undoubtedly have to either raise taxes, cut education spending further, or cut some of the optional Medicaid programs, such as those that pay for nursing home care for the elderly. 

My Will's Not Valid? What'chu talkin' 'bout!

Just days after the death of actor Gary Coleman multiple Wills have surfaced. The childhood star famous for his role as Arnold in the television series Diff’rent Strokes left an estate that appears poised to be disputed by his ex-wife, his former manager, and a mystery woman.  You can read more details here.

The will asserted by his ex-wife, or now common law wife as she asserts, was not witnessed and will therefore not likely be accepted by a court as valid.  Will challenges are not limited to the rich an famous.  They just are the ones that make the headlines. The overwhelming majority of will disputes you are not likely to ever hear about, like this one recently decided by the Mississippi Court of Appeals.  One thing is certain.  You do not get a second chance to fix your estate, and challenges are not likely to arise until it is too late to do anything about it.  That is why it is so important to make sure your estate is planned and executed properly.  While there are lots of free and low-cost solutions available, the only way you can have certainty that your estate is properly planned and executed is by engaging the services of a qualified estate planning attorney.  If you are uncertain whether your affairs are in order, please feel free to call my office for a complementary review at (601)925-9797.  Your meeting will be free, and your peace of mind will be priceless. 

My Will's Not Valid? What'chu talkin' 'bout!

Just days after the death of actor Gary Coleman multiple Wills have surfaced. The childhood star famous for his role as Arnold in the television series Diff’rent Strokes left an estate that appears poised to be disputed by his ex-wife, his former manager, and a mystery woman.  You can read more details here.

The will asserted by his ex-wife, or now common law wife as she asserts, was not witnessed and will therefore not likely be accepted by a court as valid.  Will challenges are not limited to the rich an famous.  They just are the ones that make the headlines. The overwhelming majority of will disputes you are not likely to ever hear about, like this one recently decided by the Mississippi Court of Appeals.  One thing is certain.  You do not get a second chance to fix your estate, and challenges are not likely to arise until it is too late to do anything about it.  That is why it is so important to make sure your estate is planned and executed properly.  While there are lots of free and low-cost solutions available, the only way you can have certainty that your estate is properly planned and executed is by engaging the services of a qualified estate planning attorney.  If you are uncertain whether your affairs are in order, please feel free to call my office for a complementary review at (601)925-9797.  Your meeting will be free, and your peace of mind will be priceless. 

Medicaid Reductions on the Horizon

States are worrying that enhanced federal payments to help cover Medicaid expenses during the recession will soon end after the House opted not to include an extension of the funds in its recent jobs bill.  States are lobbying the Senate to put back a provision back into the jobs bill that provided funds for enhanced federal Medicaid payments that would last through the end of the year, CQ reports. "'States are still in fiscal peril,' Scott Pattison, executive director of National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), said during a conference call June 3. He said governors face a 'cliff' when the extra $87 billion provided for Medicaid in the 2009 stimulus package runs out Dec. 31." The governors association is asking for lawmakers to restore the enhanced funding — at a cost of $23 billion — through next June, after it was stripped out of a jobs bill last week. "Under the health care overhaul law, states can no longer increase premiums or otherwise change eligibility criteria for Medicaid. That means their options for cutting costs are limited to things like reducing provider reimbursements, increasing co-payments or dropping coverage for optical and dental services".  Meanwhile, news reports indicate that states also are bracing for the budgetary impact if Congress doesn't extend this federal Medicaid assistance. More

Billionare's Estate Tax May be $0 Thanks To Estate Tax Holiday

A Texas pipeline tycoon who died two months ago may become the first American billionaire allowed to pass his fortune to his children and grandchildren tax-free. When John D. Rockefeller, America’s first billionaire, died in 1937, his estate paid 70 percent.  But Dan L. Duncan, a Texas natural gas billionaire who owns natural gas processing plants and pipelines, died in March, 2010, at age 77, making him the first known billionaire to die during the year without an estate tax.  If congress does not act to make the estate tax retroactive into 2010, the federal treasury may miss out on as much as $4 Billion in estate taxes.  The Treasury collected more than $25 billion in estate taxes in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available. More. 

North Korea Finds Fountan of Youth

North Korea claims to have developed a "super drink" that, it says, can multiply brain cells and stop skin ageing.  The secretive state's official news agency, KCNA, says the drink contains 60 kinds of "microelements" extracted from more than 30 species of plants.  It attracted "much interest from Chinese, German and other businessmen" at a trade fair in Pyongyang last month, the agency reports.  It was developed by a joint venture fruit juice company.  KCNA says: "It, with effects of both preventive and curative treatment, helps improve mental and retentive faculties by multiplying brain cells.  "It also protects skin from wrinkles and black spots and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral haemorrhage, myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time.  "It, much higher than quality cosmetics in anti-oxidation capacity, is efficacious for different skin diseases, including allergic dermatitis. It also makes skin fair.  Of course, the nation also claims that its "Deal Leader" hit 18 holes in one the first time he tried the game of golf, and that he wrote an entire encyclopedia while attending college, so it should come as no surprise that such a great development as a youth elixer would be developed here.  More.

Medicaid Repeals Rate Reductions

The Mississippi Division of Medicaid has repealed its earlier reduction of reimbursement rates for nursing homes, pharmacists, and physicians.  Link  Medicaid now says it has enough money to get it through the rest of this fiscal year through administrative cuts.   

LA Times Reports on Mississippi Medicaid and Healthcare

An article in the LA Times reports:

Mississippi is one of eight states that cut its Medicaid rolls between 2004 and 2008, according to enrollment data analyzed for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. In the same period, the number of Mississippi children living in poverty increased.

Enrollment in Medicaid has begun creeping back up more recently. But the governor has said Mississippi cannot afford to insure any more people, even with the extra help from Washington.

"This new law will ultimately force the state to raise taxes, as hundreds of thousands of new people will be added to our Medicaid rolls," Barbour said.

Mississippi will have to find about $429 million over the next decade, a nearly 5% increase in Medicaid spending, according to an estimate by the Urban Institute, a left-leaning Washington-based think tank. But the federal government has agreed to kick in an estimated $9.9 billion over the same period to help Mississippi, enough to allow the state to cut in half the number of poor adults without insurance.