Medicaids eligibility rules Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Medicaids eligibility rules - Essay Example Tracing back to the adopted laws, the Medicaid program first provided medical coverage for low-income families and other categorically related individuals who meet eligibility requirements (Andersen et al., 2013). Candidates enrolling to the program included the blind, aged, disabled and pregnant women. In fact, Medicaid serves as the nation’s primary source of health insurance coverage for low-income populations. By the way, each state have always been administering its own Medicaid program, establishing their own eligibility standards, determining the scope and types of services they cover, and setting the rate of payment. Moreover, benefits vary from state to state (Andersen et al., 2013). Since 2013 due to the expansion of Affordable Care Act, the enrollment to the program has been eligible only for those with low income rate. Thus, states participating in the expanded Medicaid program are required to allow people with income up to 133% of the poverty line to qualify for coverage, including adults without dependent children (Andersen et al., 2013). That is to say the eligibility for the program depends purely on income level. It is quite doubtful whether managing a program this way and whether the amendments introduced to the law are efficient. In essence, there is a dramatic difference in needs that has a single adult who is paid insufficient, pregnant woman or an elderly or disabled person. For example, after retirement elderly people spend either the rest of life or some time in nursing homes, the cost of which is very expensive. Many people pay for these nursing homes with their own money, often depleting their life savings, and spend thousands on it. In this cas e Medicaid should help cut these costs at least. Another case is when an immigrant, who does not have a well-paid job and cannot afford traditional medical insurance, may qualify for Medicaid, due to financial needs. Of course, everybody applying for this