On October 21, 2024, Paragon Visiting Fellow Stephen Moses was quoted in the Washington Examiner.
From the article:
Taxpayers cannot afford to pay for the home healthcare of every senior who needs it. People need to save for these expenses. And those savings exist!
Stephen Moses, a visiting fellow at the Paragon Health Institute, estimates that “$35.4 trillion in retirement savings; $12.4 trillion in home equity; and $21.2 trillion in life insurance currently lie fallow” for use by seniors for possible long-term care expenses.
Seniors often don’t tap those assets because they can count on Medicaid, the health plan for the poor, to pay for their home care. It covers 61% of long-term care expenditures. Medicaid exempts a minimum of $713,000 in home equity, and up to $1.071 million in some states, from the asset test for Medicaid eligibility.
