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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Medicaid Health Insurance: Are You Qualified?

By Don Bethune

If you fall into a low income group, you may very well qualify for Medicaid. People who donat have medical insurance or who have inadequate medical insurance may qualify. The guidelines for Medicaid are established by the Federal Government and administered by each state individually. For this reason, your eligibility will be determined by your State Agency, and that is who you must contact.

KEY ELIGIBILITY GROUPS
States are required to include certain types of individuals or eligibility groups under their Medicaid plans and they may include others. Statesa eligibility groups will be considered one of the following: categorically needy, medically needy, or special groups. Following are brief descriptions of some of the key eligibility groups included under Statesa plans. These descriptions do not include all groups. Contact your state for more information on all Medicaid groups in your state.

CATEGORICALLY NEEDY To fulfill criteria for this category a family must meet the states eligibility requirements for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). This criteria was put in place on July 16, 1996. This category includes women who are pregnant and children under the age of six. The family income must be less than one-hundred and thirty three percent of the Federal poverty level. Also, children from the ages of six to nineteen whose family income is up to one hundred percent of the poverty level qualify to be included in this category. People who live in medical institutions and have a monthly income that is up to three hundred percent of the SSI income standard (Federal benefit rate) also qualify.

MEDICALLY NEEDY Children who are under the age range of nineteen to twenty one and also children who are under nineteen and are registered as full time students might be able to qualify for this category. A state can decide not to qualify this complete group of children. When this is the case, the state limits services to certain portions of the group. This is termed areasonable groups of childrena. Medically needy people may also be those who are past age sixty five. People who are blind according to the SSI program standards or the standards of the state may qualify. People with disabilities (defined by the SSI program standards or the standards of the state) might be included within this category.

SPECIAL GROUPS Medicare Beneficiaries may qualify. According to #8221Medicaid will pay Medicare premiums, deductibles and coinsurance for people who are termed as Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMB). Also according to #8221 people who have an income that is at or below a hundred percent of the Federal poverty level and who have resources that are equal to or less than twice the standard that is allowed according to SSI may qualify. Additionally, there are groups in which Medicare related expenses will be paid by Medicaid. Again, according to #8221, Medicare beneficiaries who have an income that is greater than a hundred percent but is less than one hundred and thirty five percent of the Federal poverty level may qualify.

When your eligibility has been determined, it may be possible for you to receive retroactive payments for up to three months prior to the time your application was filed. This determination will be based upon whether or not you could have been eligible during those three months. Naturally, if your circumstances improve and you become ineligible, your coverage will cease at the end of the month during which the improvement happened. A lot of states have a astate-onlya program in that supplements Medicaid. This program is especially designed to provide medical assistance to people who fall through the cracks. These are the people who have limited resources and income but canat qualify for the Medicaid program. This sort of state-only program does not get any Federal funding.

So you can see that the main recipients of Medicaid are those who have a very low level of income or have a low household income that matches with the eligibility requirements and the rules that are set up by your state. If you meet these requirements, you may very well be qualified to receive Medicaid insurance coverage.

Be sure to contact your state to find out about its laws before you apply for Medicaid. In that way, you will know what the requirements are in advance. If you want to know more, you can visit: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/eligibility or http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/whoiseligible.asp).

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