Filial Responsibility Law - Adult Kids Sued for Care of Parents

Thirty states have filial responsibility laws. Does yours?

Matthew Paluka explains that they are "...statutes that establish a duty for adult children to care for their indigent elderly parents. When enforced, the statutes can require the adult child to reimburse state programs or institutions that have cared for the indigent parent with either a one-time contribution or installment payments."

Paluka explains that in the past, Medicaid practices have curtailed states from requiring adult children to care for their needy, elderly parents - but his report also discusses the amount of Medicaid funding that would be significantly impacted by Filial Responsibility enforcement.

Recent changes in Medicaid legislation, as described at ElderLawAnswers.com, may result in litigation seeking to enforce these filial responsibility statutes, as nursing homes try and find help to cover care costs and expenses that are not covered by the federal government. The forecast involves lawsuits pitting nursing homes against the kids.

Perhaps elderly parents and children should stop and consider their options now. More information in that regard is also provided at ElderLawAnswers.Com.

See also: Filial Responsibility Laws, Medicaid, and Long Term Care Insurance

Organic Gardening: How-To-Do

Bruce Deuley, who has a morning show on KAHL-AM every weekend, has a fantastic site called Organic Matters providing lots and lots of information on organic gardening.

What's that? "Lawn and garden care without the use of toxic chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides," Deuley explains.

Oodles of tips appear on how to use ordinary, easy to find items - like cornmeal or epsom salts - in your lawn and garden .... Recipes are included. A really good site: it even has podcasts of Deuley's radio shows.

Paper or Plastic?

Leaving the crafting question aside (paper wins), which is better: paper or plastic bags at the grocery store? The Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment, after much scientific study, voted plastic in 1990. However, in 1990 the Simpsons had just started on TV and Bush the First had only been president for one year. Perhaps more data is needed.

The plastic bag folk provide a site that breaks the choice down into three components - reduce, reuse, recycle -- and they suggest plastic is the better option. (Duh.)

However, even the paper people at treehugger.org vote plastic is the lesser of two evils, after much consideration. Wow.

So, I guess the answer is .... plastic, please.