Eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a federal cash assistance program administered by the Social Security Administration, is based on financial need.  Additionally, applicants must be at least 65 years old, blind, or disabled.  The cash benefit is a meager $967 per month (2025) for an individual, however SSI beneficiaries also receive...

Medicaid is not a single program.  The Texas Medicaid system encompasses many health benefit programs based on financial need for children, pregnant women, parents, older adults, and people with disabilities.  Elder law focuses on Texas Medicaid programs that fund long-term care, Medicare out-of-pocket costs, and other health benefits for seniors...

Congress is considering extensive budget cuts to Medicaid which would adversely impact millions of people in Texas and the U.S.  In response, hospital, physician, and nursing home associations across the country are calling on Congress to protect Medicaid from budget cuts.  Severe reductions in federal Medicaid spending would have a catastrophic impact...

What is the Medicaid “Look-Back” period?  Medicaid “looks back” into the past to see if the applicant has given away any money or property in order to qualify for benefits.  The length of the Look-Back period is five years before the application date.  On the application for Medicaid long-term care benefits, the...

  Senate leaders are working to ram through a tax bill this week which will greatly increase deficits, triggering $25 billion in Medicare cuts and leading to major cuts in Social Security and Medicaid to pay for the deficit.  The bill would chiefly benefit the highest earners while hurting the middle class, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and other experts. In addition, the bill would repeal...