The Medicaid program is something that is supposed to be available to people who have very low income, (and to others who meet certain qualifications). Unexpectedly, the health care law recently signed by President Barack Obama would allow millions of Americans who make middle class income be able to get Medicaid for “almost free”.
There are rather specific qualifications that a person must meet before being accepted to the Medicaid program. Medicaid is a federally run health insurance program that is for people who are poor, or people who are disabled.
In order to qualify for Medicaid a person must be a United States citizen. Each state has different requirements about who can get Medicaid. In general, you have to be over the age of 65. Or, you can qualify if you have a disability, and are under the age of 65. When a person applies for Medicaid, the state will take into account his or her finances. This includes the person’s income, as well as the amount of money in their bank accounts, and the value of their home, vehicles, and anything else that could be sold for cash.
President Obama just signed a health care law that came with an unexpected twist. After it was signed, it was discovered that this law could actually enable middle class people to qualify for Medicaid. This was not the intent of the law, but it seems to be a side effect of it.
In the past, people who were early retirees would have the income they were receiving from Social Security benefits included in calculations that determined how much money that person was making. The new law changes things. From now on, most of a person’s Social Security benefits would not be counted as income for determining eligibility for Medicaid.
Essentially, this means that a married couple who are both early retirees could have an annual income of around $64,000 and still be eligible to be covered by Medicaid. According to the 2011 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines, the “poverty level” income for a married couple who lives in one of the 48 contiguous states (or the District of Columbia), is $14,710. If the married couple lived in Hawaii, the number is $16,930, and for those living in Alaska, the number is $18,380.
Administration officials are now aware of this problem, and they are working on a solution to it. The intent of the new health care law was to simplify the rules for deciding who would be allowed to get Medicaid. It was supposed to create one national policy that would be followed by all states. It was not supposed to open up Medicaid to an entire group of people who were not low income.
Image by Oldmaison on Flickr