Nobody is forced to do anything. They can certainly leverage their significant equity in the home to pay those taxes, they can take a lien like many other states allow for in these situations, etc.

But frankly I don't understand why a retiree who is living off of social security would sit on a multi million dollar asset, rather than cashing out and increasing their standard of living many times over by moving. And I don't think they are a victim by having generated 10-20x returns on their home