as small as a world and as large as alone

8:34pm September 17, 2014

bittersnurr:

winglssdemon:

1. katisconfused said: I think mom is on medicaid now so I think you should qualify? I think you may have to wait until you DON’T have insurance or they deny you though. it varies by state I this though and my state has basically been a ACA beta test since 2007.

It does look like I qualify, and I might even qualify for it to help with my regular insurance bills. How’s your state done with the ACA if you don’t mind my asking.

Well I have health insurance and wouldn’t otherwise and that is good

But it’s more a bandaid than a fix. Over the last few years the number of doctors medicaid covers has gotten smaller and smaller, and combined with having a rare illness I can’t find doctors for a lot of things. (I have exhausted every single pain clinic my insurance would take, the first refused to even let me make an appointment, the second said they were unable to help me if I didn’t want to take anti-seizure meds even though I’ve tried before and get allergic reactions, and the last one said it was all in my head and I should see a therapist. The one good clinic I went to my insurance dropped last year.)

There is also a really nasty loophole very similar to the one for disability. Once you have enough money to stop qualifying for medicaid you have to buy your own insurance, which is usually still more than you can really afford until you hit like middle class sorts of wages. So basically it’s like SSI where if you make “too much” money it cuts out and you have giant gap before you can afford to both pay for health care and pay for existing.

Other loopholes include you don’t qualify for medicaid if your job or school offers insurance, no matter how shitty it is. So when I was in college I had to pay $2000? a year for health insurance that didn’t even cover the required immunizations to enter the college. (this may have changed since 2011 though)

so basically it’s better than nothing but there are a bunch of giant gaping holes for people to fall thorough, and as soon as the insurance and doctors figure out they can just not cover things under the insurance you end up unable to get treatment.

EDIT: I forgot a VERY IMPORTANT LOOPHOLE

Not only do many places not take my insurance but a lot of places DO NOT ACCEPT OUT OF POCKET PAYMENTS. I have tried in desperation to pay some doctors out of pocket and they have refused. So BASICALLY this can be used as a classist method to cut off poor people’s access to health care entirely! isn’t that great!

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