Posted on 07/12/2009 9:29:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This one's going to blow baby boomers' minds. It concerns a little-known law dating to Elizabethan England suddenly being enforced with gusto in Pennsylvania. The law can force adult children to pay their parents' health-care costs.
If Mom and Pop can't pay, you pay. If they have the money but refuse to pay, you pay. If you don't, watch your credit rating sink under the weight of a legal judgment that will haunt you for life.
It happened to Don Grant. It can happen to you.
The Havertown man is nearly 50 and struggling to pay his mortgage and $100,000 in student loans incurred by his daughter, a recent Albright College grad.
Last year, Grant was sued because his mother, Diana Fichera, did not pay an $8,000 bill at a Delaware County nursing home, where she rehabilitated after surgery.
Grant went to court with his half-sister, who was also sued. He told the nursing-home attorney that he's estranged from his mother and that Fichera has income from Social Security plus two pensions.
The nursing-home lawyer told Grant that all would be resolved if Fichera paid up. When she again refused, the judgment was entered against the whole family.
Family strife costly
Grant says that his relationship with his mother "has always been strained" and that he was raised primarily by his grandparents.
"It was a big house in Drexel Hill," he recalls. "She lived on the second floor. We lived on the first. Sometimes, she'd show for dinner, sometimes not. She never did homework with us."
Grant says his mother has long overspent and mismanaged her money. Fichera declined to comment through her daughter, Grant's half-sister, who asked not to be named.
Public records show pages of judgments and liens against Fichera, 71, who receives a $1,434 monthly pension after working for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 23 years. (Unlike wages, which can be garnisheed, Social Security and pensions are generally exempt from seizure.)
In 2006, the Wallingford Nursing & Rehab Center sued Fichera for not paying a $28,000 bill.
Two years later, she accrued another debt at Brinton Manor in Glen Mills. This time, the nursing-home lawyer got creative.
Old law, new use
Blue Bell lawyer Brian Scott Dietrich represents Brinton Manor, but did not return phone calls for comment. Pennsylvania State University law professor Katherine Pearson knew why as soon as I mentioned his name.
"There are three or four major lawyers in Pennsylvania who specialize in representing nursing homes and hospitals, and one of their favorite tools is Pennsylvania's filial statute. Dietrich is one of them," says Pearson, an expert on the arcane issue, also known as "support of indigents."
"These attorneys will bring suit against adult children even if the children live out of state and even if it's been years since they had contact with their parent."
The legal concept of requiring children to support their parents predates colonial America.
"It's a noble theory, a law to make families responsible for each other," Pearson notes. "It didn't work then, and it doesn't work now."
In fact, she adds, filial cases usually "end any real possibility of the family reuniting."
Pay now or pay later
Grant learned of Fichera's rehab debt in a letter from Dietrich's office in March 2008.
"I said, 'Don't contact me. I have nothing to do with her. You're barking up the wrong tree.' "
A month later, Grant was laid off. In August, he was sued.
By the time of the court hearing, Grant had found work for less pay at a firm that sells foreclosures. "I talked to a lawyer," he says, "but he wanted $400, and I didn't have it."
Representing himself was an expensive mistake. Grant never knew he had a narrow window to appeal. Now, it's too late.
"Most of the time, the nursing homes will still compromise and settle, but not always," Pearson says. "Once they have a judgment, they feel empowered."
So a hurt and angry son is left with a dilemma he can't afford: Go into debt to pay his mother's debt, or ignore it and brace for the worst.
"If I go to buy a car, it's going to affect my credit," he says. "If we try to sell the house, it will come up."
Needless to say, Grant no longer speaks to his mother.
"The worst part? She's got as much money coming in as we do," he says. "And I'm being held responsible for her irresponsibility."
*
At one time America had charity hospitals and sanitariums before the fascist government and thieving liberal hospitals moved in and destroyed them.
“My position in the matter is that the case has not been proved. I have gone back to SCOTTISH LAW where there are three verdicts: guilty, not guilty, and not proved. I am not prepared to say on this record that President Clinton is not guilty. But I am certainly not prepared to say that he is guilty. There are precedents for a Senator voting present. I hope that I will be accorded the opportunity to vote not proved”....
Sen Arlen Spector (D) Pennsylvania February 12, 1999
I haven’t seen anyone advocate government (taxpayer) responsibility - mostly that the mother needs to be sued for the money by the creditor, and leave the son alone.
There are "eldercare" lawyers who specialize in protecting inheritance money from being used for long term care. The ads say, "Don't let your hard earned assets be used up for nursing home care. Protect your assets so that your children can enjoy them", or something to that effect.
That galls me. Yeah, that's the spirit. Pass all your assets on to your children, then have unrelated taxpayers foot your bill for long term care. That's just wrong.
As a boomer with living parents, I am expecting nothing from my parents. If they need to use it for their comfort and care in old age, so be it. They've given me FAR more important things than money.
possible ping
More generally the taxpayers (medicare and Medicaid)pick up the expensive nursing home tabs and with many in their 50s and 60s paralyzed after bad strokes to be there for life (due to type 2 diabetes.) This is a very expensive period of life and we will only have more americans living it.
There is an irony that the USA borrows money or prints it to hire (medicare and Medicaid) those from other countries to do these dirty and unpleasant jobs. so what good do all those dollars do the Chinese when their aging population increases?
Exactly. Maybe it's time that the medical industry take some advice from the corner gas station - pay up front, either in cash, credit, or insurance. It is criminal to demand that anybody except the recipient of the service pay for that service.
He’s probably not even in her will.
Ping for later.
uhhhhh... yes. lol
Another reason to be responsible stewards now. Personally, I find this situation to be very sad all the way around, and as I am estranged from my folks, it is heartbreaking that they could continually foist hurt upon their children......
Dave Ramsey Fan Ping List.
If you would like to be added to the “Live like no one else, so that you can LIVE like no one else” list, feel free to Freepmail me.
Noticed Texas is not on the list.
As a kid raised in foster care with total failures for an egg and sperm doner - I will not pay 1 red cent for either one of them.
Thanks for the ping.
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