Posted on 06/28/2014 3:32:55 PM PDT by sneakers
I need help and advice from my fellow freepers. The situation is this: recently, son and wife had a baby. Her health care covered their family and all expenses, but they couldn't afford a baby sitter, even on their combined salaries so she had to quit, so son quit a job which he loved and they moved to be near us, He lined up a job relatively quickly, but it is seasonal and no benefits. It's meant to tide them over until he gets a better job. Baby is past due for her checkups (thank goodness she's healthy). So son and wife applied for the Chip program to get health care for baby, but are told they are making too LITTLE. So, the people at CHIP are referring them to Medicaid! Son is fit to be tied! Neither of them wants to go on Medicaid, but worry about the baby being covered.
So today, son learns that he may have a shot at a very good paying job - with benefits, but he doesn't know when the opening will come up and they may have to go on Medicaid in the meantime until those benefits kick in - assuming he gets the job. My question is - and this is what he's worried about - if he gets this job, and they are forced onto Medicaid, can he drop the Medicaid and go with the company healthcare package? I am reading that it's hard to get off of it?? This is what he is afraid of - that there is no going back if they go on Medicaid.
Please, if anybody knows, I would appreciate input from my Free Republic friends.
sneaks
they can get off, he might have to pay the state back for any benefits they receive and should
I agree with the ‘should’.
In concept, if someone does not want to be on Medicaid, they cannot be fored onto or kept on it. In practice though, some large institutional providers like hospitals and nursing homes include in their forms provisions for the institution to apply for Medicaid coverage on the patient's behalf if that is necessary in order to get paid.
Stories about being forced or kept on Medicaid usually stem from a finance clerk at a provider like a hospital or nursing home arranging for a patient's Medicaid enrollment so the provider can get paid. In some cases, this may be unnecessary and unwanted because other medical coverage applies or a family member is willing and able to pay the bills.
If a provider insists on Medicaid coverage being applied for in spite of payment otherwise being offered, the patient and their family have a remedy: walk out, go somewhere else for treatment, and make payment arrangements that avoid the prospect of an unwanted Medicaid enrollment.
“Remember, also that Medicaid for anyone with any real paper worth, or with prospects of future worth, that worth, in whatever form is mortgaged to the Medicaid system, subject to future reimbursement “
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Uh,uh. The asset forfeiture is only for seniors.
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Thank you, everybody, for your suggestions and input. I knew I could count on a lot of information and opinions to ponder and share with son and DIL.
Again, I ask prayers for my son that he lands this job.
Your guess is right on the money.
We (my wife and I) had two children living with us and as a condition of legal guardianship, we had to have them on Medicaid, as soon as we adopted them, they were removed from it because of our family income.
The real kicker here is that my wife and I didn't want them to be on Medicaid from day 1 and our primary insurer was perfectly willing to add them to our family plan at no extra cost as long as we were their legal guardians. The state (Illinois) demanded that we not remove them.
After the adoption was final, the state quickly removed them.
Yeah that's true. Medicaid although funded with federal funds is a state ran program. In some states the County Health Departments do inoculations. IIRC when I was a kid our doctor told my parents to take me there because they would keep the records the school would need. That was over 50 years ago though and on the heels of the nation recovering from the Polio epidemic. Dad had insurance.
At a minimum and this is a guess in this case it may be simply the baby is placed on Medicaid but not the parents. Some states do that. Another thing to look for is groups who run health care clinics at greatly reduced price or on ability to pay.
Short term I wouldn't worry too much. IF the child does get seriously ill there is always the emergency room and payments despite threatening letters can be worked out to where it doesn't break their bank account.
Let me see if I understand you. When you were the legal guardians, but not yet the parents, of the children the state insisted they stay on medicaid, but once you did become their parents they were willing to take them off, or actually insisted they be taken off medicaid, is that correct?
That’s a little silly, I suppose, but I can kind of understand it. I can see how the state still has some role to play when a person is a legal guardian and how that role for the state ends when the person becomes the adopted parent.
Your insurance plan may have allowed this, but others might not have (that is just a guess on my part) and I’m sure it is just easier to have the same system in place for all children who are in a guardianship situation.
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