Florida has so far still refused medicaid expansion..
According to the Herald-Tribune:
“We do have until the end of the year,” State Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, told the nearly 300 people at the Sarasota Tiger Bay monthly meeting. “We’ll certainly have a lot of dialogue about it in going into the fall.”
Boyd said he thinks there will be “some solution” before Jan. 1, 2014, the deadline for when Florida has to decide whether to accept the expanded Medicaid program to draw down federal funds.
In the meantime, those of us living between the cracks are royally screwed. I just got my Notice of Case Action letter from Florida Department of Children and Families today. Good news: I'm still eligible for Medically Needy. Bad News: my buy in has somehow jumped from $9 to $1075.
The explanation of the buy in, for those who don't understand how the program works states this:
Your "share of cost" is the amount of medical bills you must have before Medicaid can pay any of your other incurred medical bills for you. Your "Share of cost" works like a deductible on a health insurance policy. Your "Share of cost" is based on your family's monthly income. You must incur medical expenses equal to the amount of your "share of cost" each (bolding mine) month before you can become eligible for the rest of the month.
My other half's share of cost for his medically needy is $998. My kids thankfully both still qualify for medicaid.
One would think given this that our income has drastically increased since we re-upped last in February. One would be mistaken. Our income hasn't increased at all since the $12 COLA raise to my other half's disability last January. Our rent however has increased because we moved, it went from $500 to $795. Granted some of that has been compensated for by a reduction in transportation costs because we can now walk everywhere we need to go rather than taking a bus or a cab. But then consider that our water bill has gone from $25/month for the trailer park's water/septic/trash system to $85/month for the trash/water/sewer here through the city.
There is no explanation on the letter saying why it's jumped so high. I suppose I could try to get a hearing to fight it, but without knowing on what grounds it was raised, how do you fight it?
Florida NEEDS Medicaid expansion. I don't have $1075 a month to keep breathing. I have COPD caused by asthma/bronchitis. I'm going to end up in the ER a LOT without my meds. And that's not counting whatever the bloody hell is going on with my neck and shoulder, that I haven't been able to get diagnosed because of this. And may the gods help us if both my other half and I get sick. $2073 per month is almost more than we bring in. We bring in on average $2100 per month after Caedy pays taxes and her health insurance. Oh, and we get $157 in food stamps. That's for three adults and two kids. Sometimes that number goes up and down slightly depending how many hours Caedy gets at work, but that's the average.
Essentially that's a deductible of 12,900 per year. That's a pretty crappy health insurance policy. But if it were per year, one hospital stay would cover it, and I could make payments with the hospital and get care the rest of the year. But $1075 every month before anything at all is covered is absolutely insane. I still haven't found a clinic or doctor in this county yet, not one I can get to anyway (there's a clinic about 10 miles away, but without a car...). Luckily the hospital here will 'charity care' our monthly 'deductible' away once we qualify for medicaid to cover the rest.
This medically needy thing may be enough to keep me alive (even that is a risk, because every exacerbation could end in death or more permanent lung damage). It isn't enough to keep me functional. It sure isn't enough that I could even think of trying to improve function enough for even a part time job. Hopefully it will be enough to keep me going until the ACA kicks in and I can get some sort of coverage and/or our government gets its head out of its rear and lets Medicaid Expansion occur.
But according to Florida's dysfunctional government... Florida residents wouldn't benefit from Medicaid Expansion. I guess that works if you don't count us.
4:04 PM PT: Rescued, thank you! And for the record, yes, this diary was a rant, but I don't imagine for a moment we're the only family going through this. I'm sure there are hundreds to thousands in this state alone in addition to those who may qualify for Medically Needy and either don't know or don't bother to file for it because it's mostly useless.