Thursday, December 12, 2013

More Obamacare Stuff

Roxanne Olson, over at the Ask Roxy blog, has some legal info to consider if you're either on MediCal, or considering enrolling in it. MediCal can take your house after you die under some circumstances.

The reason that's an issue is, as part of Obamacare, the state is trying to expand the number of people on MediCal. I didn't qualify, but since the wife is partially on MediCal, it still applies to me.

I've known for some time MediCal can take your house after you die. My question is do they ever actually do it? I don't know that I've heard of anyone's home being taken after death, but it's probably limited to the type of people you'd never hear about after they die anyway.
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The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat sent out an announcement maybe a week ago. A reporter wanted to do a story on people who have benefited from Obamacare and wanted them to contact him. Having heard all the bad stories going around I imagine he wanted to put a better spin on things. I've yet to see his story appear. Guess he couldn't find anyone?
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I had to comment to Roxy Olson that I might be one that benefits from Obamacare. It's really too soon to tell but at least for now I don't have to worry about having too much money in the bank disqualifying me from MediCal/CMSP. I hated that and it is SUCH a relief not to have to worry about having too much money- that amount in our case being less than $2500.00.

On the downside, Obamacare does consider income but not expenses as to how much your health plan is subsidized. That means if you make $20k a year and are barely getting by, your subsidy is the same as someone making the same amount but doing fairly well. They don't take into consideration that one person might pay $1500 a month rent, and another one pays half that.

Also, since they check your income each year to verify you qualify for the subsidy, that means if you get a raise your monthly payments might go up. I don't know how much. Would they take your whole raise or just part of it?

But beggars can't be choosers, can we?
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 A doctor explains why health insurance- whether private or public run- raises health costs.

11 Comments:

At 10:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I bought a property that was being sold to satisfy a medi cal lein. They (medi cal) want to be reimbursed by the estate of a deceased person only for the amount medi cal spent on that person. So stay healthy and they won't take your house. Also your spouse can keep the house as long as they live.

 
At 10:25 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Makes me wonder how much MediCal has payed toward the wife's medical care? I'm sure it's more than the value of our house.

I don't really have too much of a problem with it, although I'd prefer the house go to someone we know.

But thanks. Wondered if they actually ever got around to actually going for the house.

 
At 11:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Effective January 1, 2014 the only factor applicable to determining Medi-Cal eligibility will be household income. You no longer have to be destitute to qualify. Obamacare is going to be a good thing.

---Longtime Insurance Broker

 
At 11:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

MediCal took my Uncle's house after he died to pay for his deceased wife's bill at a care home.

 
At 11:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Or I shld say they put a lien on it and the coroner put it on the market to sell and pay MediCal. The listing price was less than the bill. Not sure what happened after that.

 
At 12:59 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

...the only factor applicable to determining Medi-Cal eligibility will be household income. You no longer have to be destitute to qualify. Obamacare is going to be a good thing.

I can only assume this was posted by a partisan Democrat as I've only heard maybe one other good result from Obamacare besides mine, and it remains to be seen how my situation turns out.

Actually, they removed the asset limits for MediCal earlier on. Might have been last year, which is when I first heard of it.

And as far as being "destitute" goes, I believe you can't make over $15K and still qualify for MediCal. I could easily see someone making over $15 being pretty broke, depending on their expenses.

I predict, in the long run, Obamacare could be a disaster. Hopefully it won't fall apart in my lifetime.

 
At 8:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

From all that I've read and stories I've heard first hand sounds like it fell apart before it was even implemented
But maybe I'm just races

 
At 9:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah if the government mandated everybody had to buy the service I provided I'd be happy about it too...
THC

 
At 12:57 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Yeah if the government mandated everybody had to buy the service I provided I'd be happy about it too....

You betcha. This will likely be a windfall for the private insurance companies.

As an aside, I read recently the White House has something like 200 employees in its press office.

What in the world might all those folks do? For one thing, some certainly monitor news and blogs to keep on top of any commentary directed at the President. I'm sure as part of that they have some that pipe in and comment whenever they find it beneficial.

Not saying that guy is one of them but those types of comment makers are out there. We've seen them here commenting on one cause or another over the years. I'm sure the White House is listening and commenting, too. Not necessarily here, though.

 
At 9:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred not only is the government buying trolls to disseminate miss info They are openly buying quote unquote reputable news organizations to spread this info who do you think owns MSNBC CNN and the rest of the state-run media and of course is going to be a windfall for the private insurance companies who do you think wrote the plan or i'm sorry as the Supreme Court ruled the tax but again I hope I'm wrong because something certainly needs to be changed in the medical industry
THC

 
At 10:08 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

I certainly think most mainstream media defer to government generated versions of the news.

 

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