The rich use U.S. care funds meant for the poor: The Hill

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Many older, wealthy Americans benefit from Medicaid, a health program intended for the poor, said an opinion piece published in The Hill on Monday.

Medicaid, a major payer for U.S. long-term health care that funded by federal and state governments, covers almost half of all long-term care spending, now nearly 500 billion U. S. dollars a year, said the article.

"By my estimate every year almost 6 billion dollars of Medicaid funds are inappropriately used for the long-term care of individuals with significant asset holdings," wrote Mark Warshawsky, Searle fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the vice chair of the 2013 Federal Commission on Long-term Care, in the article.

According to Warshawsky, the rules and administration of the program in many U.S. states are loose and porous, and most states make little or no effort to recover assets from the estates of deceased Medicaid beneficiaries, despite federal law requirements.