I can tell you that in the state I'm in (Texas), once a person is indigent (down to just a couple of thousand dollars in assets, but that doesn't count their house), then they qualify to go on Medicaide, which is what pays for indigent nursing home care. Medicaide (the State, or you and I, the taxpayers) only reimburses a nursing home about $90 per day for basic care, so that is all that Medicaid can come after when a person dies -- only if a home exists to "go after," since the patient has already established that they are indigent.
It isn't an "inflated amount," if anything it is minimal. Two patients, side by side in a nursing home will get the same care. The facility will get $90 per day from the state for the indigent patient, but the person that still has assets has to pay the private patient rate -- which in my f-i-l's case was $147/day at the facility where he stayed after he broke his hip and his regular insurance dropped off. Luckily we were able to get him out of there -- the place was terrible.
The "inflated" amounts that you are talking about are witih hospital care, and that is covered by Medicare for all persons over 65, not Medicaide for indigent patients that need nursing home care.
If you reread the posts you will find that I simply said that "inflated costs" were not the issue of this article. I was pointing that out to a poster who impied that it was the issue.
"Inflated costs" have nothing whatsoever to do with this article and that is all I was pointing out.
I was neither agreeing or disagreeing with her about costs.