General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Well, for me Obamacare is a washout. [View all]progree
(10,909 posts)First, if you are a single childless adult in Indiana, you are not eligible for Medicaid, no matter how low your income. (If you had a dependent child, cruelly the threshold would be somewhere in the 0-50% of poverty, according to the map below.
http://kff.org/medicaid/fact-sheet/where-are-states-today-medicaid-and-chip/
Per this, in Indiana, 2-person household with a dependent child has an income limit of $247 / month -- that's $2,964 a year, or 18.8% of the poverty guideline of $15,730 for a 2-person household.
http://member.indianamedicaid.com/am-i-eligible/eligibility-guide.aspx
Just so you know this because you have been given advice by one person in this thread to just declare a very low income to qualify for Medicaid. That wouldn't work at all if you are a single childless adult, because even a $0 income won't qualify you for Medicaid.
Per http://www.factcheck.org/2013/09/obamacare-myths/ "There are also IRS perjury penalties, and civil monetary penalties spelled out in the Affordable Care Act for providing fraudulent information."
I'd want to know more about that before relying on a Kaiser Health News article.
Google: welfare information sharing detecting fraud
You have also been told in this thread that all the state and federal agencies do to verify income in 2014 is to look at your 2014 income tax return when you file it in 2015. That appears to be true in the case of the ACA subsidies. But it is assuredly NOT true in most / all states when dealing with eligibility for state-administered programs such as food stamps, cash assistance, and yes, Medicaid.
What happens in Minnesota, my state, is that they ask about one's income this month and next month. And they monitor electronic databases (see below) and ask questions if there are significant discrepancies. Some of these databases report income as it occurs in near real time. For Medicaid, they also ask one to reverify everything every 6 months.
Nobody has provided a link to anything saying that the state agencies will stop their income verification procedures or penalties for mis-reporting income. These include the two links that have been presented in this thread innumerable times (neither which addresses state agencies, or for that matter, federal agencies other than the IRS which administers the ACA subsidies and penalties):
http://www.hsaforamerica.com/hsablog/income-estimates-aca-subsidies/
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/August/12/income-projections-low-income-Obamacare-state-medicaid-marketplace-exchange.aspx
Here, as an example is what Minnesota does for data sharing in SNAP and the various cash assistance programs, where they also ask for one's income for this month and next month:
... you must report changes which may affect your benefits to the agency within 10 days after the change has occurred. Applicants Report these changes to your worker when the change happens. This includes the following for everyone in your household: (etc. etc.)
...
Notice about the Income and Eligibility Verification System and Work Reporting System
What is the Income and Eligibility Verification System (IEVS)?
The government has a way to check income. It is the Income and Eligibility Verification System (IEVS). The law has us check your income with other agencies. We have to check income for all who ask for or get cash assistance benefits. This includes your children. We need Social Security numbers (SSN) for anyone wanting help. If you have no SSN, you must apply for one. Apply with your human services agency. You must report all SSNs to your worker.
What is the Work Reporting System?
Minnesota employers must tell us when they hire someone. This information is used by the Child Support Program. We also use this information to see if a new employee is getting help from any of the programs listed on the first page of this application.
What facts will we get and how will we use them?
We check with other agencies about your income, assets and health insurance. If you did not tell us about all of your income or assets, we will refigure your aid. Your aid might go lower or stop. If you get aid you should not be getting, we may use these facts in civil or criminal lawsuits.
How do we use it?
If the employee is getting help from any of these programs, the worker gets a notice. If the client did not report the new job, the worker will contact the client. The worker may ask the client to show proof about the job. The client may need to give the agency permission to check the facts with the employer. If a client does not help us check the information, they will lose benefits.
Agencies we get information from
We must trade facts with these agencies:
# United States Social Security Administration (SSA) We get records of self-employment earnings, retirement
income, survivors benefits, disability payments, Social Security (RSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
# United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) We get records of unearned income (like interest and dividends).
# Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) We get records of wages and pay and facts on Unemployment Insurance.
# Minnesota Office of Child Support Enforcement
# Agencies in other states that manage:
. . Unemployment Insurance, Cash assistance, SNAP, Child support enforcement, SSI state supplements
These agencies have the right to get certain facts from us about you. They have to use those facts for programs like RSDI, child support enforcement, cash assistance, SNAP, Unemployment Insurance, and SSI.
We will tell you if facts from other agencies are not the same as the facts you gave us. We will tell you what facts we got, the kind of income or assets, and the amount. We give you 10 days to respond in writing to prove if our facts are wrong. We will ask you to show proof of income, assets, or health insurance you did not report or that we could not verify. You may need to give us permission to check the facts with the source of data. We will tell you what happens if you do not sign for permission or do not help us.
No state agency to my knowledge relies only a tax return that is filed a year later for a couple of reasons -- obviously it is nearly 2 years from when 2014 benefits begin, to when the 2014 tax return must be filed (October 15, 2015 for those who ask for an extension).
And many people in poverty don't file tax returns. The threshold for when one must file a tax return for 2013, for example, is $10,000 for a single individual. (Although the vast majority of people under that income level -- and somewhat above that level too -- would benefit by filing tax returns, particularly with the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit (in effect it is a negative income tax).
(A low income self-employed single parent friend of mine paid no income tax during the year (either through withholding or estimated tax payments) and got a $900 income tax check from the federal government. That was what was left over after they paid her $2500 FICA taxes! Effectively a $3400 negative income tax, of which $2500 went to pay FICA taxes).
I'm very sorry to hear about your health circumstances. I'm sorry you have been subjected to such nasty attacks in what purports to be a progressive forum.
That said, upon reading http://www.democraticunderground.com/1050373
If literally my life was at stake like that, I wouldn't hesitate to "merely miscalculate" my annual income to above the poverty level, and then get a silver plan, not a bronze plan (that's a whole separate thread).
Problem: open enrollment ended March 31. But since you talked to a navigator and accessed healthcare.gov, you may qualify for extra time (but I think that extra time runs out April 15). Your navigator might have to sign something too, if you didn't leave any electronic trail (start an application say) on healthcare.gov.
There are a number of other qualifying circumstances to enrolling outside the open enrollment period ...
And there's next year -- open enrollment begins November 15 for coverage beginning January 1, 2015.
As an aside, for people who may be eligible for Medicaid, there is no open or closed enrollment periods - you can apply any time of the year, and, if accepted, get coverage within a month or so.
Anyway, good luck and take care