Obamacare a potential boon for estate looters, probate abusers

  (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

While the public voices serious concerns about proposed socialized health care plans, a group likely to quietly be applauding this move are grave robbers, property poachers, walker stalkers and other opportunists seeking to loot estates via probate instruments like wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney.   Disgruntled family members, wannabe heirs or unscrupulous members of the legal industry will likely find treatment of the elderly under this new health care approach helpful with Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions in which probate venues or instruments are used to divert assets from intended heirs or beneficiaries.     

The explanations of government-run health care being put forth defy logic and reasonable thinking.  A plan that purports to allow people to keep their current health care providers while it covers more people at a reduced cost and involves no rationing or delaying/withholding of care makes no sense without a serious increase to our country’s debt, to productive Americans’ tax bills and probably both. 

People are rightfully questioning details of the proposed versions of legislation as revealed to date.  The White House and Congressional leaders claim public outrage is contrived.  Diversion tactics aside, as the public learns more about potential “reform,”  legitimate questions are surfacing over its cost implications, effectiveness in truly covering “all” Americans and the elder-hostile nature of its language.  Despite assurances against rationing or withholding care – especially for seniors, the terminally ill or those with life-threatening injuries – language in at least one of the versions appears to say otherwise.

After reviewing H.R. 3200 in preparation to address the recent GOP Congressional Dinner, Dr. Dave Janda, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and world-recognized expert on sports injury prevention, wrote “it should be clear that the same warning notice must be placed on The ObamaCare Plan as on a pack of cigarettes: Consuming this product will be hazardous to your health. “  Dr. Janda’s analysis of the bill finds rationing and denying care as the plan’s underlying cost-cutting methods with rationing implemented by The National Health Care Board that “will approve or reject treatment for patients based on the cost per treatment divided by the number of years the patient will benefit from the treatment."  So what happens to older Americans and how could this lead to an increase in IRA actions?    

Implications for probate abuse or estate theft come as the bill discusses “Advance Care Planning Consultation” (p. 424) apparently available every five years upon becoming eligible for Medicare, but which “may be conducted more frequently than provided under paragraph (1) if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual, including diagnosis of a chronic, progressive, life-limiting disease, a life-threatening or terminal diagnosis or life-threatening injury, or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility, a long-term care facility (as defined by the Secretary), or a hospice program.” (p. 428) 

In this counseling, patients will learn about “the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.” (p. 425) Wikipedia defines palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) as any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure.  The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness.  In other words, patients are medicated or provided other pain relief means instead of receiving proactive medical treatment.     

Elder financial abuse is frequently termed the crime of the 21st century.   Though sometimes occurring posthumously, estate looting and other probate abuse fall into this category.  Estate disputes frequently include allegations of undue influence with the role of medication being a common point of contention.  If palliative care becomes a major tool in the government’s arsenal of health care cost-cutting measures, predators will seize upon this opportunity. 

“Isolate, medicate, steal the estate” is a phrase commonly associated with the perpetration of IRA acts.  The medicate phase offers greatest opportunity for the use of undue influence that can lead to late-in-life and uncharacteristic changes in an estate plan.  Abandoning proactive medical treatments and instead artificially incapacitating our seniors in the name of “palliative care” will aid unscrupulous individuals in estate hijacking pursuits.  Similar concerns can be raised for the disabled or younger people with terminal illness or life-threatening injuries – especially when those individuals are attached to a significant estate as legal settlements can certainly provide.     

The administration and Congressional leaders say absolutely their reform will work and be better for all Americans.  Of course, no final version is available for review and currently released plans being merely proposals helps to deflect criticism and provides cover that “problems” will be fixed with subsequent revisions. 

The federal government wants us to trust them.  This plan expects large groups of Americans to forfeit a flawed, but functioning health care system so as to provide coverage to 45.7 million previously uninsured “Americans” whose true numbers have been credibly questioned.  The degree of pressure to quickly approve this legislation despite its illogical economic premise and specific language clearly questionable to the longevity and welfare of many Americans – especially the elderly – is rightfully a major cause for concern. 

Estate abuse and probate corruption are already threatening the property rights of many Americans and their heirs' or beneficiaries' rights of inheritance.  Provisions of this legislation – specifically doping rather than treating certain population segments – will only add to this problem.  This is not disinformation, it is not misinformation – it is merely a reasoned prediction based upon knowledge of the IRA issue including the opportunistic nature of the financial predators who perpetrate these acts.  Statements made here are not meant to scare or intimidate people, but merely to educate an unsuspecting public of an additional consequence likely to flow from the current health care proposals. 

Estate thefts often being treated as civil rather than criminal matters have already encouraged a growth element to a sector of the legal industry and have provided financial incentive to others desiring to divert assets from intended beneficiaries.  It is a reasoned observation to state that increased numbers of heavily-medicated, especially elderly, people will likely further fuel this expansion in activity.       

Photo Courtesy AP:

Protestors march near Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, where President Barack Obama spoke about his health care plan. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

For more info: 

End-of-Life Benefit Ignites Health-Care Rhetoric (July 30, 2009)

The Prognosis for National Health Insurance (August 4, 2009)

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