Elder Care and Filial maintain Laws

Could you be legally liable for paying for the care of an elder parent? Under something called Filial withhold Laws, you most as a matter of fact could in thirty states.

Imagine you pick up your mail one day and start rifling through it. Junk mail, bills...and then you come over something looking 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!

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Can this as a matter of fact happen? In 30 states, it most by all means; of course can happen and does all the time. The laws are very old. They originated in England when collective assistance was limited. Families were predicted to band together and pick up the cost of care for family members. collective 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 new. The Filial withhold Laws were part of that body of laws and thus adapted. Although 30 states have these laws, each state has a slightly dissimilar version. In some states, only the children of the someone are responsible for providing care while other states enlarge 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 concerned in looking 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 exciting thing is these laws sat dormant for a very long time. Only recently have they gained the attentiveness 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 gigantic loss of value in relinquishment accounts due to the current economic troubles, one can fancy it is only going to get worse.

Elder Care and Filial maintain Laws