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Don't tell me you're tired of me talking about Medicaid estate recovery...New paper out about estate recovery in North Carolina using public records data alongside demographic characteristics in a first of its kind paper.

We found approximately $83 billion was recovered from beneficiaries between 2017 and 2021, or 0.6% of the total cost of North Carolina's annual Medicaid program. We found that Black homeowners were more likely to have lower value estates recovered, and more money was recovered from white estates.

However, the value of homes owned by Black families is substantially less than white ones ($27,000 vs $73,000), explaining in part why more money was recovered from white homeowners. Considering differences in lifetime wealth accumulation, the impacts may be felt more deeply by Black families.