Thursday, April 16, 2009

How To Qualify For Medicaid Health Insurance

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 Every state provides service to the members of particular, established eligibility groups. A state may also decide it wants to include additional groups for service with Medicaid. There are some groups that the state is required to consider. They are: Categorically needy, medically need, and special groups. Letas explore the criteria that defines the required key eligibility groups that must be included in a Statesa plan. You wonat find all the answers here. To know more, be sure to contact your State Agency.

CATEGORICALLY NEEDY Families who meet this qualification must qualify for the states eligibility requirements established for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) that was put in place on July 16, 1996. Pregnant and children under the age of six are included in this category. A family income that is less than one-hundred and thirty three percent of the Federal poverty level must also be in evidence. Additionally, children who are between the ages of six to nineteen and whose family income is no higher than one hundred percent of the poverty level will qualify for this category. Couples or singles who live in medical institutions and have a monthly income no greater than three hundred percent of the SSI income standard (Federal benefit rate) will also qualify.

MEDICALLY NEEDY
1. Children under age 21, 20, 19, or under age 19 who are full-time students. If a state doesnat want to cover all of these children, it can limit eligibility to reasonable groups of these children.
2. Aged persons (age 65 and older). Blind persons (blindness is determined using the SSI program standards or state standards).
3. Disabled persons (disability is determined using the SSI program standards or state standards).

SPECIAL GROUPS Medicare Beneficiaries who qualify under #8221Medicaid are paid Medicare premiums, deductibles and coinsurance. These people are termed as Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMB). Under #8221 people whose income that falls equal to or less than a hundred percent of the Federal poverty level with resources that are also equal to or less than two times the allowable standard in accordance with SSI might qualify. Furthermore, some groups may qualify for Medicare related expenses that are to be paid by Medicaid. Under #8221, Medicare beneficiaries whose income is greater than a hundred percent while remaining less than one hundred and thirty five percent of the Federal poverty level might also 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.

Mainly, the people who are eligible for getting Medicaid are people with low income levels or families with low household income as stated in the rules and eligibility requirements set by the state you are a resident in. You need to meet these requirements in order to qualify for the Medicaid insurance coverage.

So, before you apply for Medicaid, the best thing that you can do is check with your state laws regarding the rules and eligibility requirements on getting Medicaid.
For more details visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/eligibility or http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/whoiseligible.asp).

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