How does that work, exactly? To produce this post I googled up the actual data for the state I live in, civilized area far from the coasts (near Chicago but not too close thankfully).
Hopefully this isn't too docs droppy but where I live any single adult making $1011.67 or less per month, or any pregnant woman or any under 18 year homeless kid making $3035.01 or less per month qualifies for the totally free medicaid. Its not like they cut you off at a penny over, there's a sliding scale.
Its actually much more complicated and for my 4 person household, we would get medical coverage totally for free if we make less than $2091.67 per month and my kids are completely free until we make more than $6275.01 per month, and if my wife got pregnant again she'd also be covered to the $6275 per month limit.
So... what kind of unemployment bennies do you guys get such that an unemployed soon to be homeless dude is making that much money? Actually, if you have that much income while you're unemployed (trust fund baby or whatever) how can you be homeless without a very expensive drug addiction or similar problem, if the average single apartment rent is about $700 around here?
I'm very sad to say that medicaid coverage in my state is not very good, but vastly better than my current corporate insurer; the copays and deductibles are so insane I'm considering signing up for medicaid and not working too hard on contract work next year. My kids would get better medical care, I'd get more time off, I have enough investments that I already make too much money for completely free medicaid without working at all...
That's actually another part I should have not included in that rant, because the truth is that healthcare didn't even enter my mind for the most part.
I didn't actually even have any medical coverage at all at that point in my life. There was no reason to. If I got sick or injured to the point that I couldn't work, i'd lose everything anyway, so the worry of some extra medical bills didn't enter my mind, and I didn't exactly have a ton of free time, so I just never bothered to look into medicaid.
I also didn't look into unemployment, so I don't know what my options there were either, since I wasn't really ever unemployed at any point (luckily!)
I'm trying to show what it's like to have to juggle that kind of stuff, while looking for another job as a way to get across what it's like. That kind of stuff is why people don't report workplace issues, it's why unions don't get started, it's why people will do anything to keep the job they have, because the alternative is much much worse in a lot of cases. Not to mention the crushing blow to your morale when you have to use the few hundred dollars you managed to save up over the last few months, it feels like you are taking 2 steps backwards and none forwards, and it really hurts.
And while there are often ways out of each problem individually, the crushing pressure of all of them all building up at once and the feeling that you won't ever get out of it is just so much to handle. And even if there are ways out of it, nobody wants to help you, nobody wants to explain the process. Even at this point in my life, I would have to google what to do to even start the process of getting medicaid. And if I were back then and my phone had just been cut off, I wouldn't know how to even do that. If i'm being completely honest, at the time I thought medicaid was another term for medicare, but different (and in my mind, medicare was for old people, and still didn't cover everything). I knew there was something for poor people, but I had no idea if I would qualify, what i'd have to do to get it, and even what to look up.
Medicaid is often limited in its scope and there have been times when I'm on it, it wouldn't cover diagnostic testing for more serious disorders. Also, there was the knowledge that trying to take advantage of medicaid requires experience and time and education, none of which is often afforded to the poor.
Well, OK... but depressingly its still better scope and coverage than my current corporate plan which is also very expensive. So I get more coverage at lower cost from medicaid... Its insurance season (october) and its going to be hard to pay more to get less given the info I've found about medicaid.
For example taking your diagnostic testing example, I can pay cash on the barrel for an awful lot of testing before I reach my corporate deductible and copay levels which are also cash on the barrel just different form of accounting swindling.
Culturally "I'm gonna go medicaid" is very much like cord cutting, right now very few people are doing it, but in a couple years I think its going to be the majority.
How does that work, exactly? To produce this post I googled up the actual data for the state I live in, civilized area far from the coasts (near Chicago but not too close thankfully).
Hopefully this isn't too docs droppy but where I live any single adult making $1011.67 or less per month, or any pregnant woman or any under 18 year homeless kid making $3035.01 or less per month qualifies for the totally free medicaid. Its not like they cut you off at a penny over, there's a sliding scale.
Its actually much more complicated and for my 4 person household, we would get medical coverage totally for free if we make less than $2091.67 per month and my kids are completely free until we make more than $6275.01 per month, and if my wife got pregnant again she'd also be covered to the $6275 per month limit.
So... what kind of unemployment bennies do you guys get such that an unemployed soon to be homeless dude is making that much money? Actually, if you have that much income while you're unemployed (trust fund baby or whatever) how can you be homeless without a very expensive drug addiction or similar problem, if the average single apartment rent is about $700 around here?
I'm very sad to say that medicaid coverage in my state is not very good, but vastly better than my current corporate insurer; the copays and deductibles are so insane I'm considering signing up for medicaid and not working too hard on contract work next year. My kids would get better medical care, I'd get more time off, I have enough investments that I already make too much money for completely free medicaid without working at all...