People who have worked enough during their lifetime get social security payments when they retire. Many live on just this. Medicaid does not require that you give up the family home. In fact, you can continue to live in it if you are able and still get medicaid to cover health benefits. You do have to reduce your other assets to a certain minimum level. I believe they look back over a period of years to see when the assets were reduced, but the penalty period is only 30 days. Not clear how this works.

There are also many other safety nets that older people are able to use, local and state, which help with various things like fuel assistance during the cold weather, tax breaks on property taxes, etc.

I personally don't have a problem with the idea that if we ask the state to take over all the person's financial needs, they must use up their assets and cannot leave them to their children. I've recently had need to look into this whole area for an older relative, and my experience has been fairly positive.