Interesting, the government does realize TANSTAAFL and has decided that those who enroll on Medicaid after 55 will pay for it out of their estate. I think 'The People' are upset about it initially because it is in the fine print and not necessarily well explained, but the mechanism itself may not be a bad thing. For those younger than 55 the government may believe that they are possibly going to reap taxes later from that person once back on their feet sufficient to offset a portion of the costs, but with older citizens they may believe the odds of such a tax revenue is diminishing and therefore must be supplemented?