BOSTON – Some seniors could get a reprieve from a new law that allows the state to recoup money it spends on health care by selling the homes of spouses of Medicaid patients who die in nursing homes.

Under a bill filed by state Sen. Majority Leader Frederick Berry, seniors who did their estate planning before July 1 this year would be exempt from the new policy.

“The law is unfair to people who have hired attorneys and have taken the time to go by the law and legally protect themselves,” said the Peabody Democrat. “We’re puling the rug out from under them. And these are elderly people.”

Berry, the Senate majority leader, said his office has received many calls from North Shore seniors worried about the new policy, passed as part of the state budget in June.

Gov. Mitt Romney proposed the changes in an effort to recover some Medicaid costs from middle-class residents who qualify for state and federal health care assistance on the basis of low or no income although they have financial assets under the control of a spouse or relative.

Until the law went into effect, seniors on Medicaid could protect their homes from the state by sharing ownership of their homes with a spouse or child. The state could only take over homes owned solely by the Medicaid patient who dies.

Now, if a married Medicaid patient goes into a nursing home and dies, the state can now put a lien on his wife’s house. While federal and state laws prevent Massachusetts from selling the house while the wife is alive, the state can move ahead with the sale when she dies.

Andover lawyer Debra Silberstein said Berry’s bill would “minimize some of the confusion” for seniors, but worries the reprieve won’t apply to those who have done their estate planning before July 1, then decide to make changes.

But Berry said his goal is to protect seniors who made their plans before the new policy was enacted.

“In difficult times, we cannot afford to put everyone in nursing homes and pay for everyone’s health care,” he said.