Elder Care and Filial sustain Laws

Could you be legally liable for paying for the care of an elder parent? Under something called Filial hold Laws, you most certainly could in thirty states.

Imagine you pick up your mail one day and start rifling straight through it. Junk mail, bills...and then you come over something seeing suspiciously like a letter from a law firm. You open it and learn you need to pay ,000 in nursing home bills for your mom or they home will sue you. Talk about a shocking piece of mail!

Nursing Homes In Dayton Ohio

Can this certainly happen? In 30 states, it most assuredly can happen and does all the time. The laws are highly old. They originated in England when public aid was limited. Families were foreseen, to band together and pick up the cost of care for family members. public aid was available, but only intended for elders who had no family.

When the United States was settled, much of the legal appropriate the country adopted was based on English law. It was, after all, what citizen new. The Filial hold Laws were part of that body of laws and thus adapted. Although 30 states have these laws, each state has a slightly separate version. In some states, only the children of the person are responsible for providing care while other states improve the requirement to comprise 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 curious 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 entertaining 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 weighty loss of value in retirement accounts due to the current economic troubles, one can presume it is only going to get worse.

Elder Care and Filial sustain Laws