As a parent, I say this to other parents: putting your kids in this situation due to failure to buy long term care/disability insurance for yourself, or having some contingent plan for other adult relatives to care for you daily in the event of a catastrophic but non fatal event is a disgrace. You failed to protect your children.
In the USA if you cannot afford long term care insurance (and it can be expensive depending on how much it is, etc) your best bet is to work out how to be "Medicaid bankrupt" when the time comes.
Reducing your assets to the point where you can get long-term care from Medicaid.
In the US, if you get into that situation Medicaid will first require that you "spend down your assets" before the state steps in and starts paying for certain types of care. And if you do something like give your house to your kids, if the time limits aren't right, the state could come looking for that house.
There are various planning options to reduce the impact from this, but you have to know to do it, and you have to execute on the plans well in advance.
(Updated original post, it's Medicaid that can clawback, Medicare does not. So if you die of turbo cancer it's taken care of, but if you die of dementia it's not.)
