Update from original poster
Since I was the one who started this thread 9 months ago, I figured I would give an update! In August, 2015, I pulled the trigger and FIRE’d at age 39. On 9/1/15, I applied for Ohio Medicaid online, given that I will not have income over the 138% poverty limit. By 10/15/15, I hadn’t head from them, so I called, and found out that for some reason my application was not looked at yet! I found out later that applications are supposed be reviewed within 15 days. My conjecture is that none of the case workers wanted to pull that application because it was such a weird circumstance. After I made that phone call (and had to leave a message for someone else), I was phoned by a case manager and was approved within 3 days. I did have to provide information that I was no longer employed, as well as verification of my dividend and interest income. They did call my former employer to confirm as well, even though I had a letter stating I no longer worked there. The case manager was definitely perplexed to the situation and asked me “What are you going to live off?” when I told her I was no longer working, and I answered honestly that I’d live off savings along with dividend income.
The approval date for Medicaid was back dated to 9/1/15 and within a few weeks I received information about 7 managed care plans in Ohio I could choose from. I compared all of them and did find that some were better than others, specifically in the provider listing as well as the vision and dental care benefits. Some did not offer any vision and dental, and others offered full coverage at no cost. I chose United Health Care, which seems to be a high ranking health plan in many nationwide surveys. They had all of the local hospitals on their plan, and a large number of local doctors.
They assigned a primary care doctor (since I never had one since I’m healthy), but when I called to set up an appointment, I found out the doctor they assigned only accepts elderly patients. I called about 4 other doctors listed in the provider document until I found one that was accepting new patients. So for those who are choosy about their doctors, this may be an issue. I didn’t have a preference since I don’t know any particular doctors. My visit to the doctor was good. I didn’t feel I have received any different care by being on this plan. He referred me to a podiatrist, who I did visit, and again, I received very good care from this doctor as well. To Bamaman’s comment about the doctors often speaking English as a second language, this was not the case in my situation. My primary doctor also ordered blood work and another diagnostic test, and I had no issue finding a provider for these, and no different treatment by the providers, as well as no referrals necessary. I also had no copays for any of this. I have a dental appointment scheduled for next month with the same dental office I had used previously, as they were also a provider on United.
Another perk of United is that they have a rewards program, where you can earn gift cards or other free stuff by doing the things they want you to do (like visiting a primary care doctor, getting lab work, flu shots, dental checkups, and vision checkups). It’s a very generous benefit, and is the reason I even set up the primary care doctor appointment to begin with.
So far, so good, 4 months into it. No complaints being on Medicaid at all, other than the initial delay in processing the application.
