Quote:
Originally Posted by Rose76
Some people do get full Medicaid on top of getting both Medicare A and Medicare B. In many states, if your income is below a certain level, they will give you Medicaid, as soon as you get on SSDI or SSI. Most people on SSI are getting full Medicare and full Medicaid.
Some people who are on SSDI are not considered poor enough by their states to qualify for full Medicaid. It varies state to state. Some are allowed limited Medicaid benefits.
The type of state aid that pays your Medicare Part B premium for you is a form of Medicaid, though a limited form. Another limited form of Medicaid is one that provides birth control to disabled women, but nothing else. People who get full Medicare and full Medicaid are called "dual eligibles." There are people like that out there.
I was eligible for Medicaid for a short while after I got on SSDI. Then, when I started getting Medicare, my income was considered too high for me to also keep getting full Medicaid in addition to Medicare. My next door neighbor is living on SSI. She gets full Medicare and full Medicaid.
My nextdoor neighbor can go to the dentist on her Medicaid insurance. I can't because I only have limited Medicaid.
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Uhm no, you cannot get Medicare if you are only on SSI (supplemental state income), no matter what state you are in. Medicare is reserved for those in the Social Security system, either through disability (SSDI) or retirement. Your neighbor is mistaken or lying to you. Just as you must have earned enough to get into the SSDI system, you must have earned enough to get into the medicare system. It is an insurance program, ie you pay in to get benefits. If you don't pay in, your only option is SSI and you are not eligible for medicare. My guess is that your neighbor is either retired or disabled and actually on SSDI.
In my state, if you are low income you only get your medicare premiums paid for and your deductibles paid for, which makes sense.....more sense than having medicare and medicaid piggybacking because I can just see people seeing medicaid docs that don't accept medicare (or vice versa) and not having their bills fully covered. Thank god I don't live in one of those states because it would be a nightmare. MOST of the docs in my state that accept medicare do not accept medicaid. Medicare is universally accepted because it is the primary health care for seniors and doctors would be shooting themselves in the foot to not accept it. Medicaid is accepted primarily by bottom of the barrel doctors and I'm glad I'm out of that program because care was total crap when I had medicaid. (ie community clinics that are overworked, doctors who weren't accepting new patients, etc.)
And no, again, it is not "medicaid" because if you tell a doctor here that you have medicare and medicaid, they will OUTRIGHT reject you because they do not accept medicaid. I think I know my own state program. LOL. My insurance card does not say "medicaid" on it or anything like it. The program is completely separate....completely. You must qualify for it separately than qualifying for "medicaid".
I'm also wondering if in these other states people are limited to in state services since medicaid typically doesn't cross state lines. That must suck. I'd be terrified to cross state lines b/c if anything happened to me, the medical bills would bankrupt me!