Stop Congress from Penalizing Church Donations!

[buffalo]

Stop Congress from Penalizing Church Donations! **Tell Your Rep. to REMOVE Dangerous Provision from Deficit Reduction Act!

** ALERT: We just received an e-mail from an attorney friend (JimZeigler.com) that we were shocked at. We checked out what he told us - and we’re convinced this is a BIG danger to churches and their donors all over the country.

Congress is set to vote THIS WEEK on a rule which would RESTRICT donations to churches. The tithes and offerings of senior citizens would be curtailed by a bill expected to come up for a vote in the U.S. House on Feb. 1st or 2nd.

S. 1932, the “Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005,” changes the rules for Medicaid nursing home eligibility. Under present rules, a senior can give a gift to his church and not make himself ineligible for nursing home coverage.

Under the NEW rule, every gift from a senior will be totaled for the five years preceding nursing home admission. The senior will then be ineligible for nursing home care and have to pay his own bill ($4,000 to $7,000 a month) until a “penalty period” is over.

This penalty would cause economic hardship for families of faithful givers. It would also cause many seniors to stop giving, hurting churches and charities.

The penalty affects all giving by seniors – college tuition for grandchildren; emergency help for family; Christmas, birthday, wedding and graduation presents; charitable and church donations. All these will be totaled for five years, and then the senior will be penalized for every dollar gifted.

Grandma and Grandpa will not be able to give any more. For many churches, senior citizens are the lifeblood.

While the intent of the bill is to stop wealthy seniors from transferring assets and qualifying for Medicaid nursing home coverage, it does not do so. The affluent and their lawyers can still legally do “asset protection.” Instead, the unintended consequences of the bill are to curtail normal giving by seniors – and devastate churches across America.

Few church leaders know about this bill. We weren’t even aware of the implications of this provision in it. It passed the U.S. Senate Dec. 21, 2005. The only chance to remove it is in the U.S. House… THIS WEEK.

:TAKE ACTION Time is short, and there are well-meaning Congressional staffers and others giving out wrong information. They say this provision is not in the bill. They are honestly, but dangerously, WRONG.

The standard Washington line is: “This bill is intended to stop millionaires from transfering assets and qualifying for Medicaid.” That was indeed the intention. But the bill does not do so. The affluent and their lawyers will still be able to legally do “asset protection” even if the bill passes as is. The bill does nothing to stop that. What it instead does is penalize faithful church givers and normal gifting – Christmas, birthdays, grandchildren, college 529 plans, family emergencies, etc.

We need to take action QUICKLY to stop this gutting of church budgets. Click “Go!” NOW to urge your Congressman to vote NO on S. 1932 UNLESS this change in the “penalty start date” is removed.

NOTE: Be sure to send this Alert to EVERYONE you know – including all active church members – who want to help STOP Congress from penalizing church donations by seniors! Thank you!

Links for more information:

Click Here for Actual Bill
(The version of S. 1932 which passed the US Senate Dec. 21, 2005 and will be voted on by the US House around Feb. 1-2, 2006 is 482 pages long. The penalty start provision causing the problem for seniors, churches, and charities is on pages 154-155.)

A meeting was held on Friday, Jan. 13 of the Section on ElderLaw of the Alabama Bar Association. They agree 100% with the devastating effects of S. 1932 on gifting by seniors, and they sent Jim Zeigler’s warning e-mail to all elderlaw attorneys in the state.

Click Here for an investigative piece about S. 1932.

Click Here for a national radio newscast about S. 1932 from National Public Radio (with whom we obviously disagree on most things!)
Take Action Now!

Tell a Friend!

 

[geezerbob]

To qualify for Medicaid, one must be nearly destitute. Right now, my only income is Social Security and it’s high enough to disqualify me for Medicaid benefits but not high enough to permit significant donations to the Church, my kids, grandkids, or anybody else. If my income were low enough to qualify for assistance, I could give even less and I suspect that those elegible for Medicaid are in a boat that’s leaking worse than mine. That whole letter seems to be much ado about nothing.

 

[Timidity]

The law seems to be aimed at preventing people from giving all their assets away and then relying on the government to pay for the nursing home they could have otherwise afforded had they not given all their money away. It seems like a noble motive to me.

Of course the devil is in the details, so perhaps the noble motive has a less-than-stellar implementation.

 

[Karin]

Research by the Kaiser Family Foundation found no more than 13 percent of patients had transferred assets four years prior to becoming eligible for Medicaid. And among those who did transfers, the amount was small, averaging $5,380.
SOURCE
It does not look like the seniors that qualify for Medicaid really have to much to start with and not many folks are giving assests away to qualify for Medicaid and if they did it is really a small pitance!

 

[EDB]

Timidity:

The law seems to be aimed at preventing people from giving all their assets away and then relying on the government to pay for the nursing home they could have otherwise afforded had they not given all their money away. It seems like a noble motive to me.

Of course the devil is in the details, so perhaps the noble motive has a less-than-stellar implementation.

In order for a senior to be able to quality for Medicare help with nursing home costs, they cannot have more than $2,000 in assets. Most nursing homes cost between $300 - $500 per day.
You must deplete your assets and then re-apply for Medicare help.
My own mother needed nursing home care after a fall a couple of years ago. She had $8,000 in saving, which she had saved up for her funeral expenses. We had to purchase a pre-paid burial trust to keep from having to spend $6,000 on nursing home. Since most funerals average $6,000, her savings was not high my any means.