anybody been on Medicaid?

[jim584672]

No personal experience. While I could argue controlling income to get ACA subsidies is gaming the system, it is the way the law was written.

I don't think anyone proposing the law expected retirees with substantial savings to default to medicaid so they could retire early ( or just save a few thou). To me, this is only a small step from getting food stamps because you can technically qualify. To me, this is not gaming the system, it is stealing from folks that actually need those benefits. Really?

Additionally, I prefer to have some level of control over my providers. I can afford it.

JMHO

The providers in my work plan, the ACA plan, and the MMC plan are all the same. So why would I want to pay more for the same care? I legally qualified for the plan, not everyone has tons of income.

 

[jim584672]

There's another part of Medicaid for things like long term care in assisted living and whatnot. That's the one that factors in your assets, which for Washington state has to be below $2000. My mom will probably need to apply for that in six years or so when her personal savings run out.

Once you are over 64 they look at assets and income.

 

[fh2000]

Our local hospital, part of a larger chain of hospitals covering a wide area of Northern California, has opted out of accepting Medicaid patients for non-emergency care. The consequence of that financial decision is that any emergency care cannot be denied and will not be reimbursed to the hospital by the state. Apparently, the bean-counters at the hospital looked at Medicaid payments and decided reimbursements were too low to bother. The only other hospital in our town is Kaiser Permanente, but I’m not sure what their policy is regarding Medicaid. It would seem to me that obtaining care could be more limiting and require more travel, depending on your location.

This is in Southern California, so the sample is very limited. But our local Kaiser has a page saying that they accept Medi-cal (California's Medicaid) if you have established relationship with them and already have PCP and other doctors with them. This will be situations for those coming off ACA with Kaiser and no longer meet the minimum income requirement for coming year, and was then sent to Medi-cal by Covered California exchange.