Hi,
I'm originally from the UK living in California and a US Citizen.
I'm thinking about bringing over my 73 year old / young mum to live with me.
she has a UK pension and owns a house, worth approx $400k.

My fear is if she has further health problems does the state help out ? I'm not sure how the system works and what I should be thinking about to plan or if life will be more difficult for her leaving free health care behind ?

No, and health insurance for her will likely be very expensive. I don't think she'd be eligible for Medicare until she's been in the US for 5 years... and after a while she may loose access to the NHS should she think of returning for a medical issue.

I'm sure someone else will be along shortly to clarify.

Ian

If she comes to live with you in the U.S., she will be eligible for Medicare after she's been a legal resident for at least five years. The base cost for her (2016 rates) would be Part A - $411 per month and Part B - $121.80 per month. After those base premiums there are additional coverages she can get such as Part D (prescription coverage) and Medicare Supplemental (helps cover copays and deductibles and other things not covered by Part A and Part B.) Medicare itself and AARP both have good information about Medicare online.

Medicare Copay, Premiums, Deductibles And More - AARP

That's after five years though, what would she do for the first five years? Under the current system, the ACA, she could get a policy from a participating insurer who covers your state & county. Probably, someone aged 74+, it would be expensive. Major complication, the incoming administration has promised to dismantle the ACA and put some new system in place. So from 2018 on, it's going to be an unknown!

Yes, as soon as she is no longer a British resident, she loses access to NHS. However, if she came back to the U.K. with the intention to be a resident again, she'd have the right to NHS care the moment she entered the country.

This is one of those State specific issues and with CA she will most likely qualify for Medicaid through the State arrangements. Based on income not savings.

Now what happens long term is anybody's guess. Logic suggests there will be a day of reckoning.

With her daughter sponsoring her though, surely Mother would not get Medicaid (or as its called in California MediCal) which is a public fund?

I'm not absolutely sure as to how MediCal works, but daughter could be on the line for Mum's health costs.

Mum does has 400K in savings by the sound of it, so SHE could afford an individual plan by the sounds of it.

MediCal is a State run issue and does not discriminate against recent immigrants.

Colorado is not quite so enlightened and I believe requires 5 years residency.

Not even certain is she has the income to buy through the exchange. Which would be $500 or so for the mist basic cover, so MediCal assuming she is eligible would be a much better bet.

But at least, after five years she's eligible for Medicare.

Would she not be better off with MediCal?

That'll obviously need some research. Regardless, she becomes eligible for Medicare after she's been a U.S. resident for five years. When someone is eligible for Medicare, can they still get coverage under programs such as Medical? I don't know.

Daughter says Mum has house worth about 400K USD - which presumably she would be selling in order to move to US.

Yes, I know someone here in SF that is on both MediCal and Medicare. The former effectively pays the premiums, copayments and deductibles for the latter.

Savings are not pertinent to MediCal, becomes an issue for repayment potentially on death.

Thousand bring their aged parents to CA every year, without any savings, so not an unusual situation.

OP says mother "has a pension", which would count as income. As would any UK state pension if that is not what is being referred to by "pension".

She no doubts has some income, how much matters. She may have to buy OCare.