Hi all, long time reader, first time poster.
I am a 26 year old single male CPA living in Ohio. I've been working for 4 years and I'm considering quitting my job and taking some time off to travel, something I've always wanted to do. I'll have my student loans all paid off and some decent savings built up a year from now, so I'm starting to do research on the logistics of taking this trip.
I've spent some time the past few days reading up on health insurance, trying to get a handle on how I would remain covered during this year of international travel.
I looked at just having travel medical insurance but basically what you're covered for with those plans is emergency care in the country you're in, and emergency evacuation to your home country. So if anything catastrophic were to happen, I'd be back in the US and need coverage.
In addition, the Affordable Care Act requires us all to have coverage now. (There are certain exemptions possible if I were to stay out of the country for almost the entire year, and/or make nothing in income... but say I decide to come home after 6 months and start working again, I'm now on the hook for penalties for not being covered for those 6 months.)
So, I knew I could do COBRA or purchase insurance on the exchanges. COBRA would be crazy expensive, so I started looking into how much the exchanges would cost, and what the requirements for the subsidies are. Because I am assuming no income, all the information and ehealthinsurance.com starting pointing towards the new, expanded medicaid as the best option. Ohio is one of the states that expanded medicaid, so now it appears to me that any adult of any age under a given income threshold can get medicaid. It is highly probable that my income would be less than the 138% of federal poverty threshold, currently around $15,000, for the year, once I quit my job.
What I would do is get the medicaid for coverage at home and purchase the travel medical insurance that covers emergency care abroad and evacuation home if necessary.
"Medicaid?," I thought. "I can't go on medicaid. I'll have to buy the unsubsidized insurance on the exchange." It's the stigma of it. I feel like I don't deserve it because I am opting for this low income by choice, rather than those who have those low incomes because they're down on their luck, or whatever. I would feel like a fool, and be highly embarrassed, going in to talk to a social worker about going on medicaid, when I am obviously perfectly able to provide for myself. I'd feel like a cheat, milking the system. I'd be embarrassed to tell friends and family. I'm not trying to make a statement about this, or talk down to anyone who has ever had to rely on government assistance... It's just a very emotional reaction... that's just the way our culture is in the US, for better or worse.
Now, there is obviously another side to this. First, all I am doing is trying to be compliant with the law of our land, which is that I am required to have health insurance. Why would I voluntarily fork over $170/month for the exchange plan to be compliant when medicaid would be free? Second, I have paid into the system plenty over the past 4 years of full time work and many years before that of part time work. Third, I would most likely not go to any doctors, and not cost the state a dime, unless something absolutely catastrophic were to occur.
So, the questions I have for anyone with experience are,
a)What is it like to apply for medicaid? What will I need to do to prove that my income is zero? Also, will they want to check up on me regularly? Should I tell them I am going out of the country or keep that to myself?
b)Is there some sort of "you have to prove you are trying to find a job" requirement that the program has (like TANF or other programs) that I'm not seeing? Because I, by definition of what I am trying to do here, would not be trying to find a job at all, the entire time.
c)Are people going to look at me funny? Will the social workers not want to work with me? Will anyone give me a hard time? I know that Ohio has an online application system, so hopefully I can minimize any contact with them and just discretely get my medicaid...
I actually posted this on another website... a health insurance discussion forum. It was really stupid of me to post on there as most of the people on there were seniors who were trying to get health care for under like $2,000 a month, or people who were actually struggling in life, or people with kids, etc... and I think they all got pretty pissed off at my post, and thought I should just get a job instead of "gaming the system" so the "taxpayers are on the hook for my health care" while I am off taking my over-entitled gen-Y "vacation from reality," and that I was a textbook reason for public anger about Obamacare. All those lazy young kids these days, don't want to work, want the gub'mint to pay for everything. Which is of course, exactly why I feel uncomfortable with this, and why I need a judgement-free zone. I should have come to MMM first, I don't know what I was thinking.
And you know what? All those people on there are probably getting their mortgage interest deductions and whatever else. Me, as a single guy who rents, I pay some of the highest taxes in this damn country. My taxes subsidize my boss' $750,000 (absurdly expensive in OH) house every year. I don't get squat! God forbid I get health coverage for a year when I won't even be here to use it!
The crazy thing is the way our government designs eligibility for these programs, solely based on income. They can't fathom that anyone making under $15,000 could be anything less than positively destitute, with no consideration that people sometimes live off savings for a time, or that people even have savings in our country these days.
I know there have been a few threads about the new medicaid eligibility on here, so I apologize for the redundancy, however, I really wanted to get others' opinions who have been through the process on what the actual process is like.
Thanks all!