Filial laws in the United States are state statutes that impose legal responsibility on adult children to care for or provide for their older parents and relatives. These laws are based on the principle that family members should take care of each other in times of need. Thirty of the 50 states have filial laws on the books.
The laws are a leftover from the Elizabethan Poor Relief Law of 1601. At one point in time, 45 states had statutes obligating adult children to care for their parents.
The law crossed over to America and was periodically implemented, but the advent of federal programs like Social Security and Medicaid seemingly rendered it obsolete. These federal programs ensured that the nation’s most senior, non-working populations had some form of income leading some states chose to strike out the law. But not all of them.
States with Filial Laws
In fact, 30 states still have familial laws on the books.
Those include:
Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia are the 30 states that still have filial laws, though they vary in their guidelines.
The filial responsibility law establishes that adult children who are of means must pay for their indigent parents’/relatives’ food, clothing, shelter, and medical needs.
Typically, the state’s filial laws come into play if Medicaid is denied or insufficient to provide long-term care. Care homes and government agencies can seek legal action to recover the cost of caring for the parents from their children or relatives.
The extent of the obligation depends on factors like the adult child’s financial situation, the parent’s level of need, and whether the parent has exhausted other forms of assistance. Exceptions are possible if the adult child demonstrates that they are unable to support their parent financially, or if they can prove abuse or abandonment by the parent. Still, the burden of proof falls on the adult children.
Arkansas, for example, only requires payment for adult mental care. Nevada’s law only becomes applicable if there is a written agreement to pay for care. Pennsylvania is the only state to enforce the law in the past 25 years.
In 2012, a suit was filed by the Health Care & Retirement Corporation of America against John Pittas, a Pennsylvania man whose mother was admitted to a nursing home. The courts ruled in favor of the nursing home and ordered that Pittas pay her outstanding medical bills totaling $92,943.
Filial Laws Around the World
Other countries across Asia and Europe have versions of filial responsibility laws with varying degrees of enforcement and extent.
China and India are on the more extreme end. China requires children to financially and emotionally provide for their parents. Failure to do so may result in public shaming, court action, or being forced by employers to take time off work to visit their parents.
In India, parents can take their defaulting children to a tribunal that will impose fines or mandate regular financial support. Children who fail to comply with court orders may face jail time of up to three months.
As the population ages and healthcare costs rise, care for the elderly will get more expensive. Some experts suggest that states might look to these laws more frequently to mitigate the growing costs of elder care. Others argue for reform or repeal, citing the potential for undue hardship on families.
Within an aging population and projected Social Security insolvency, filial laws may become more actively pursued in the years ahead. But lack of awareness about them may delay financial planning by adult children before it’s too late.