It's About Shielding Assets

I think this is what it is...the Dragons want to be able to preserve assets before Daryl gets incapacitated and winds up in nursing home care. Medicare doesn't pay for nursing home coverage--Medicaid does, and you HAVE to spend all of your assets down before you qualify for it. You HAVE to be destitute to get it. Getting a divorce preserves the healthy spouse's share of the estate and that spouse doesn't wind up destitute. However, there are all kinds of regulations in there such as a "five-year lookback rule" so that people aren't shielding assets that can be seized such as the family home, bank accounts, and so on. Contrary to widespread myth, Medicaid is NOT "free" health care. It is a giant loan leveled at people who have the unmitigated gall of being poor, which can happen to ANYBODY who is not Bill Gates. If you qualify for it as a part of ACA and are over 55, you MUST sign away your estate so that any expenses on Medicaid--including monthly premiums--are subject to asset recovery when you die or your spouse dies if that spouse outlives you. Asset recovery is a part of the federal code, which has been in effect for over 20 years. States HAVE to recover those assets to pay for Medicaid. It's very lucrative for lawyers.

Lots of older couples "divorce" not because they decided they hate each other after living together 40, 50, or more years but because of these rules designed to prevent "abuse" of the system.

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