Health Care in This Day and Age

I decided to take the opportunity to use my expertise and offer some pointers and suggestions about getting healthcare when it may seem impossible to get.  I am going to break this up into a few different posts.  Otherwise this would be too long.  As some of you may know from reading my first post, I work for a company that helps patients apply for local and state programs that are available to help with their bills.  In this day and age, health insurance is expensive and practically unaffordable.  What do you do when you lose your job and health coverage as well?  What happens when you don't have the money to purchase your own policy?  Now with the new health care bill it may be a different story, but let's forget about that right now.  It won't come into effect until 2012 anyway.

For this post, I would like to make it a way of introduction of what is available out there as far as Social Service programs that can help with your medical bills.  To lay the groundwork one must understand that these programs are not available to everyone.  There are income and resource requirements that need to be met first.  Also, each state has specific programs that target a certain group of people.  For instance, Virginia (the state I live in) has a program called FAMIS.  This program is for children and pregnant moms that are over the income limits for Medicaid.  Other states have similar programs.

Each county in your state has a department of social services (some call it human services or similar).  This is where you go to get an application to apply for the program.  The most common name for the program is Medicaid.  Now some of you may be thinking, "I don't want to apply for welfare."  First of all, that is not what it is and secondly, if you really needed help wouldn't you seek out every opportunity possible to get health coverage to cover your bills? 

Every state has their different qualifications to be able to receive this assistance.  The most common difference is the income limits.  That is based on the poverty level in that particular state.  There are some requirements, though, that remain constant.  Those are meeting a category of either minor child (18 years old or younger), over 65 years old, pregnant, blind or disabled (declared disabled by the state or Social Security).  Once these criteria have been met, the application can be processed.  Expect to provide verifications of income, citizenship, identity and residence in pretty much every state.

Medicaid is a state funded program, so there is no cost involved.  This program may not provide complete coverage, but at least you won't have as big of a bill you would have without it.  In my next post I will be providing some resources concerning these programs that you can use.  If you have any immediate questions, the best thing to do is call your local department of social services (contact info usually found on your county's website).  Feel free to leave a comment or question about any Virginia state program questions.  That is my area of expertise when it comes to a particular state. 

Helping you get the upper hand,
Peter Bunn
Rising Leader

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