Could you be legally liable for paying for the care of an elder parent? Under something called Filial Support Laws, you most certainly could in thirty states.
Imagine you pick up your mail one day and start rifling through it. Junk mail, bills…and then you come across something looking suspiciously like a letter from a law firm. You open it and learn you need to pay $30,000 in nursing home bills for your mom or the home will sue you. Talk about a shocking piece of mail!
Can this actually happen? In 30 states, it most definitely can happen and does all the time. The laws are extremely old. They originated in England when public assistance was limited. Families were expected to band together and pick up the cost of care for family members. Public assistance was available, but only intended for elders who had no family.
When the United States was settled, much of the legal standard the country adopted was based on English law. It was, after all, what people knew. The Filial Support Laws were part of that body of laws and thus adopted. Although 30 states have these laws, each state has a slightly different version. In some states, only the children of the senior in need of care are responsible for providing care, while other states expand the requirement to include grandchildren! In California, it is a misdemeanor to not comply with the law! In other states, family members can sue other family members to make them pitch in on the cost of care.
At this point, you are probably very interested in seeing a list of the states that have such laws. In alphabetical order, they are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The interesting thing is these laws sat dormant for a very long time. Only recently have they gained the attention of, oddly enough, senior housing facilities such as nursing homes. These facilities are using the laws to try to get family members to pay the bill or at least get motivated to help persuade Medicare to cover the bills.
You might be thinking this is one of those things that sounds nasty, but rarely happens. In truth, it is occurring more and more as the baby boomer generation continues to reach their golden years. With the massive loss of value in retirement accounts due to the current economic troubles, one can suspect it is only going to get worse.
Kristana Jenson is with OrangeCountyCarePlacement.com – a free Orange County assisted living placement service for seniors in or moving to California.