It's incredibly rare and PA is absolutely an outlier. That's why the case that is mentioned was newsworthy. Typically when it's used it's to recover money in c

It's incredibly rare and PA is absolutely an outlier. That's why the case that is mentioned was newsworthy. Typically when it's used it's to recover money in cases of fraud. For example, where the parent or child conspires to hide money from the state to avoid paying for care. To the best of my knowledge, PA is one of the only states that allows private entities to sue. Some states are like Ohio where it's a criminal statute, so only the state has standing to bring charges. All said, don't get legal advice on the internet, this is an armchair discussion by laypeople. As an aside, I don't see why the children should have any specific burden to take care of their parents medical expenses now that we have Medicare and Social Security. We've decided it's better to have all of society to take care of our elderly rather than tie it to their children's ability to pay.