A recent episode of The Oprah Podcast has people looking up whether their state of residence has filial responsibility laws on the books.
Oprah Winfrey discussed the increasingly common act of going “no contact” with family, which brought up these widely forgotten laws from the days before Medicare and Medicaid.
Some are now connecting the sudden concern over kids going no contact to the right-wing attacks on these social supports.
What is filial law?
Filial responsibility laws mandate that adult children must financially support their parents if they can’t care for themselves. These laws, currently active in 26 U.S. states, come from a time when society expected kids to provide food, shelter, and other necessities for their elderly parents—before the government did much for them.
Most people forgot about filial laws after Medicare and Medicaid expanded to cover most medical expenses for the senior population. Social Security, combined with pensions, also allowed many over 65 to retire and live in reasonable comfort.
@jasmine.partida Replying to @humanrandali #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Jasmine Partida Strategy 💡
Something’s changing. For some reason, the elderly population is increasingly facing abject poverty and homelessness, and the current White House occupants want to hoist that problem back onto everyday families.
While these laws typically state that adult children will only be required to provide the care they can give based on income and expenses, there are some shocking individual cases out there. In 2012, a nursing home successfully sued a restaurant owner in Pennsylvania for $93,000 to cover his mother’s bills when Medicaid wouldn’t pay.
While cases of family estrangement and “no contact” have increased over time in conjunction with a better understanding of the impacts of abuse and trauma, the backlash feels like it came on a lot faster.
What does filial law have to do with Oprah?
Now that Oprah’s concerned, it’s only going to accelerate among the generation that loved her most.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, she released a podcast episode on the subject, claiming to want to hear both sides while repeating common talking points used against the idea of going no contact.
“There seems to be a trend now where anytime somebody is offended, or they feel like their family hasn’t emotionally supported them enough, they feel the need to take all contact away,” she wrote in a letter about the episode published to her website.
On TikTok, younger folks began to theorize that this backlash is a precursor to the revival of filial law enforcement. They drew a line right to the recent social support cuts in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
“Why is your feed suddenly telling you to ‘fix things’ with your toxic family?” asked @maydaypartyof5 in the caption of her video.
“Because Medicaid cuts mean nursing homes will close, and states can legally make adult children responsible for elder care.”
Millennials sound off on socials
“They’re finding out that now that the Baby Boomers are in the assisted living facilities, there are no beds for Boomers,” @alltheanys pointed out. “They’re full, completely [and] not building new ones. So, where are they supposed to go?”
@alltheanys please check your state and local laws.
♬ growth – Gede Yudis
“In your basement.”
In the comments, many TikTok viewers expressed fears of having to support their parents financially in the future. One wrote, “I will leave the country before I take care of either of my neglectful boomer parents…”
“My parents, who gave 10% of their income to the Mormon church instead of investing in their retirement, want me to take care of them,” scoffed one.
“So they REALLY want Millennials and everyone after to work literally until we die at work is what I’m getting from this,” said another.
A millennial recalled old lessons in high school that predicted a similar situation: “I remember my 8th-grade social studies teacher warning us about the boomers getting old. This was 2007 🙃. Everyone knew this problem was coming down the line, and no one cared to do anything about it. America, baby.”
One millennial with good familial relations also expressed shock, saying, “As someone who has a great relationship with my parents and plans to take care of them when they need assistance, I still find this WILD?!?”
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