It is my understanding that many people who are not currently insured will be visiting the California exchange, and if their income is low enough, and they are not offered insurance through work, they will get insurance through MediCal.
I spent today cleaning out the closet. Among other items I came across was a brochure sent to this household some years ago (circa 2008-2009) when we qualified for MediCal.
Here is what it says in the brochure, sent by Health and Human Services:
"When a Medi-Cal beneficiary is 55 years of age or older at the time of death, the State will collect from his/her estate the cost of Medi-Cal services received including insurance premiums paid an d payments made to managed care on or after the 55th "birthday."
The brochure goes on to detail exclusions, such as if your spouse has survived your death, they won't go after the estate until the spouse has also died. And they exclude a household where a child survives a parent AND IS UNDER THE AGE of 21.
So is this still in place?
Again, this is not something I found out about by watching Fox news, or the RW Denouncers. It is right there inside the brochure issued by California Dept of Health and Human services.