Medical Insurance for Graduate Student

@compmom

The current tax proposal has tuition waivers as taxable income. So…what CA does could very well change if that happens.

That isn’t correct. The states that didn’t expand medicaid do not offer medicaid to adults who do not have dependent children or meet some other criteria. There are 19 states that still haven’t expanded medicaid to adults. Those who do not meet the income level needed for subsidies get nothing. Well, they get to pay in full for insurance if they want coverage.

There are hundreds of thousands of poor adults who are not covered in Florida, Georgia, Texas… They don’t have to pay the tax penalty (and probably wouldn’t make enough to be taxed anyway), but they get no coverage.

Yeah hoping it fails …for my daughter loss of Medicaid secondary will be disastrous due to high medical expenses. I have been calling my senators.

Tuition waivers are (currently) NOT used for Medicaid calculations.

Absolutely NOT true. Unless your daughter is pregnant or the parent of a young child, she will not qualify for Medicaid in non-expansion states.

When our daughter reached age 26 while in grad school, we went with the TCC temporary continuation of coverage which can be for 3 years. I believe it is the COBRA option which does not require preexisting illness info, etc.
If available, this may be her smoothest option.

Romani with no income?

No. In non-expansion states, you cannot qualify as a healthy adult regardless of income. At least not as any kind of federal rule. There may be some state-level programs in non-expansion states but none that I am aware of for childless adults.

You can look up the specific medicaid requirements in whatever state:
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/fact-sheet/where-are-states-today-medicaid-and-chip/

ETA: Apparently Wisconsin is an exception. I have no idea what their state-level program is for childless adults.

There might be drs in her area who charge on a sliding scale based on income. Our ds is turning 26 and his company offers crappy insurance ($6000 deductible for someone making not much above minimum wage.) We live in a state with no adult Medicaid. We have found out that there are several drs and a hospital in the area that charge based on income.

@compmom

If you have a kiddo with some kind of disability, they might be able to get Medicaid in a non expansion state.

But kids like mine…healthy but in a non expansion state…can NOT do so.

We are looking into medi-cal, California is an expansion state.

Any tips for Medical-cal application?

I think that in Wisconsin, one can qualify for Badgercare Plus (the state-sponsored health insurance program) as a childless adult if one’s income is under $12,000 per year. I’m not sure what the premiums are (if any).

It looked like on that chart the only difference for qualifying for Medicaid in Wisconsin is that the income limit is 100% of the FPL where in other states you still qualify at 138% of FPL.

ForMedi-Cal I suggest using an enrollment office: there is a list on the site. Insurance offices and enrollment centers at community centers. In Massachusetts, you get coverage while your policy is pending but in California that doesn’t seem to be true. The person at the enrollment center has been extremely helpful in keeping the ball rolling and informing my kid about exactly what documents are needed, I would go so far as to say the enrollment center has advocated for her. She does have significant medical conditions to they may be on her side more than with others, who knows.

@compmom

Thanks for the tips. The only problem is that my D is not motivated to apply early. Even after we kept telling her it is not too late to apply for Medi-Cal in December to be effective in March. :-S She is bogged down with her medical rotations and don’t have the time to bother with all the other stuff. I wonder if we can help to apply it for her.

She can make you a designated representative. At least, in Massachusetts, that works. If you are in California you could then go to an enrollment office. Of course she could also do it online.

If health insurance is not a priority for someone, from my point of view, they are fortunate!!! But you never know what might happen. My kid got on Medicaid right after graduating because her father had had a stroke and we lost family insurance. A few weeks later she was hit by a car. The bill was almost $400k for surgery, ICU, rehab, and further brain procedures. Insurance paid it thank heavens.

@artloversplus

If your kiddo is a medical school student, she MUST find out if her medical school requires her to have health insurance to continue her rotations. If the answer is YES, she needs to get this situation resolved or she will have a LOT of free time on her hands.

@thumper1

Yes, the school requires her to have insurance, right now she is under our insurance so there is a waiver with the school. As soon as our company insurance drops her in Mar. 2018, she is out of the waiver, thus this thread. Worse case scenario, she will get on to their SHIP(or student insurance), its about $5000/year. And the total for her will be about $6000 under the SHIP, as she is graduating in 2019, at that time she should be covered in her residency program.

@artloversplus

I WISH my kid’s professional School offered health insurance…they don’t. At least your kid has that option. TBH, I would go with that.

Funny…I was looking g at old threads and thought I would update.

DDs school added back a school based health insurance plan as of August 1. She signed up…immediately. It gets her out of the exchange.is there going to be a policy open enrollment “stuff”. She will continue this school based plan until she graduates from her program June 30, 2020.

So glad the school reinstated school health insurance plan!

@artloversplus what did you end up doing in March?

@thumper1

Since she is an adult and has no income from any source, she is eligible Medical, free medical insurance for low income cal residents.