California Bill
The Los Angeles Times 
(6/6, Pfeifer) reported that California’s Medicaid program “has long looked to the estates and heirs of deceased Californians to recoup public money spent on their healthcare in the last years of life.” But legislators are now looking to limit the practice, which can include suing survivors and filing liens against the homes of poor families. On Thursday, “the state Senate approved, 33 to 0, a bill by state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) to order major changes in the Medi-Cal recovery program.” Senate Bill 33 “would limit the state’s ability to go after homes ‘of modest value,’ allowing survivors hardship exemptions for homes with fair market value of 50% or less of the county average.” It would also bar the recovery program from seek money from the estates of surviving spouses.
