LGBT Older Adults and Long-Term Care Under Medicaid

September 2010 | Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), Movement Advancement Project (MAP)

Download PDF Go to Web Site

Medicaid generally pays for older Americans requiring long-term institutional or home-based care. Only individuals with low assets and income can qualify for Medicaid, but Medicaid qualification rules also include a series of "spousal impoverishment protections" that aim to prevent requiring a healthy spouse to live in poverty in order to qualify a sick spouse for Medicaid. Unfortunately, these spousal impoverishment protections do not apply to same-sex couples, which can leave the same-sex partner of a Medicaid recipient homeless, penniless, and without a living-wage income. One of eleven issue briefs based on the SAGE/MAP report Improving the Lives of LGBT Older Adults. Note: This publication was created before the June 2013 US Supreme Court decision overturning Section 3 of DOMA, so some information contained herein may no longer be applicable.