My uncle got help from New York State Medicaid.
The state claimed $1955 from his estate.
That is a common pattern in states with Medicaid. Any debts accrued by Medicaid on behalf of a person 55 or old will be clawed back from their estate upon death.
I rented a room from a couple brothers in San Diego. The oldest was on Medicaid an going to dialysis 3 times per week on Medicaid's tab. That ended when an infection from the dialysis destroyed his heart valves and he died. The house was an inheritance from the parents. It was sold and it appears Medicaid clawed back over $50k for the years of dialysis. The other siblings were anxious to sell the property and didn't object to the proceeds of the eldest brother going to Medicaid to square up his debt.
What absolutely stuns me is anyone, in government or not, would even have that thought come to front of mind. Family takes care of family and would do this. Yet harboring a suspected FELON is in itself a felony, never mind inviting everything else into your only true private sanctuary on the planet.
That’s a pretty common practice with Medicaid in most any state, especially if there were huge medical bills. Under their rules, you pretty much have to be really poor (e.g., no significant wealth or assets). There are many cases where recipients try to hide the assets by transferring to relatives/beneficiaries but there’s a timeline on that before the death occurs.