Housing in Medicaid: Should it Really Change?

Bertrand Achou

Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers from Institut sur la retraite et l'épargne / Retirement and Savings Institute

Abstract: Housing is mostly exempted from Medicaid and Supplemental Social Insurance means tests. Reforms of this special treatment have been debated but little is known about its costs, benefits and redistributive implications. I estimate a life-cycle model of single retirees accounting for this exemption. The model shows that the homestead exemption explains important patterns of Medicaid recipiency, that it is highly valued and may be of limited cost as it incentivizes saving and reduces Medicaid recipiency at older ages. The model also predicts that removing the homestead exemption or enforcing more systematically estate recovery programs would reduce redistribution towards lower-income retirees.

Keywords: Medicaid; Housing Savings; Retirement; Life-Cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D15 H51 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-ias and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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