Medical Insurance for Parents - a nightmare?

jennimi, you are asking how we got the emergency medicaid... well, my dad was taken to the ER by ambulance, had his surgery, was in the intensive care unit for a couple of days, then was sent home... later we got the bill, and called the hospital explained there is no insurance, no work... and no way to pay over 70 thousand dollars,.... they made us fill out medicaid forms and asked info about how he supports himself...etc.( he lives with me) they sent the aplications and got us approved...so basicly the hospital did all the work.HTH
 
When we sign the Affidavit of Support for I-485 and promise to be financially responsible for them until they become USC or gather 40 quarters of work, etc....that responsibility includes the medical expenses too, right?
 
no it doesnt.... we are responsible for making them not be a public charge.getting emergency medical care is not a public charge, so they are eligible for it. you are however responsible for doctors bills and medications, but an emergency in the hospital is a whole different story. check the uscis site look for the support documents you need to fill out, they have instructions there, and i recall reading what is and what isnt a public charge... they clearly state emergency medicaid is fine.
 
Medicaid and Emergency Medicaid

Medicaid is counted as a Federally means-tested benefit, but "Emergency Medicaid" is not, see this link:

http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/affsupp.htm#faqs

"Emergency Medicaid" is limited to a very specific group of immigrants: they must be under the Medicaid income threshold and be over 65, blind, pregnant, etc.

"Emergency Medicaid" requires enrollment, is only for emergency care (such as a stroke, heart attack, etc.), and does not cover non-emergency medical expenses. See this link:

http://www.scjustice.org/pdfs/ImmigrantEligibilityforPublicBenefits.pdf

According to this link, after 5 years of LPR the immigrant is eligible for Medicaid if the person meets its conditions. During the first 5 years they may be eligible for "Emergency Medicaid" if they meet its conditions.

Let me know what you all think.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for sharing your experience, greencardmaze. This is precisely what seemed to have happened in my friend's father's case, except he probably didn't know it was 'emergency medicaid'.

Good question, Suzy.
Thanks for the useful links, ejazharoon & sometime2006.
This thread is proving to be very helpful, with members pitching in with their comments and research.

So, this is what I understand from your posts and links..
Parents can get the medicaid card and are eligible for it only :

1) 5 years after GC (OR)
2) When they get their CZ

Is it 1) or 2) - I still am not sure..

To get the medicaid benefits, after 1) or 2) will they still have to qualify for the very low income requirement if they are not 65 or over? In that case, do you think it will be the sponsor's income that will be evaluated?

If they are over 65, will the low income requirement be still checked?

Until such time as 1) or 2), unless it is an extreme emergency like a heart attack or something, we cannot count on emergency medicaid for parents. For any other medical condition, regardless of how huge the medical cost is, we the sponsors of parents have to pay. Is this how it is or is there any other alternative?
 
Thank you for your answers, greencardmaze, ejazharoon, sometime2006, jenimmi.

Very informative thread, I've learned a lot and I appreciate everybody's contribution, not only the guys I've mentioned above.

One more question: Medicare (not Medicaid) is available only for US Citizens over 65 or GC holders can get it too?
 
Suzy977 said:
Thank you for your answers, greencardmaze, ejazharoon, sometime2006, jenimmi.

Very informative thread, I've learned a lot and I appreciate everybody's contribution, not only the guys I've mentioned above.

One more question: Medicare (not Medicaid) is available only for US Citizens over 65 or GC holders can get it too?
Click to expand...

Suzy,
Only US citizens over 65 or disables are elegible for medicare.
 
jenimmi:

To answer your questions:

Parents may be eligible for Medicaid after 5 years of LPR. As page 11 of the attached link points out, however, this is a state option and all states except CO and UT have opted to cover such persons.

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/greenbook2003/MEDICAID.pdf

If they are over 65, income and assets will still be checked. Here are the income and asset limits for IN, for example:

http://www.indianajustice.org/Data/DocumentLibrary/Documents/1054478707.0/0105medicaid.pdf

If parents have been LPR's for 5 years, sponsor's income and assets may or may not be included for determining Medicaid eligibility. This is known as "sponsor deeming", see link below:

http://www.healthassistancepartnership.org/assets/docs/Medicaid_and_SCHIP_Eligibility_Rules17bb.doc

Are there alternatives other than Medicaid for nonworking LPR parents? Not sure, but High Risk Insurance Pools (see the link below for AR CHIP) may be one way to obtain coverage:

http://www.chiparkansas.org/eligibility/

Suzy: The link below appears to mean that green card holders with 40 calendar quarters of work may be eligible for Medicare:

http://www.utahcares.utah.gov/infosourcemedicaid/Tables/Medicare_Decision_Tree.htm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think it's not fair for people to bring their parents here relying on Medicare or Medicaid or anything similar to that. That means that you're bringing all your family to the US and expect taxpayers to pay for that. I would love to bring all my family here but I know that I cannot afford that and I wouldn't expect other people that work hard to pay for them.

I've been reading this thread for a while and I just wanted to give my personal opinion. I am very sorry if I offend anyone but I think people should be conscious enough to not bring family that they cannot support. It is just hard to see so much of our money vanish as federal taxes, it really makes it hard to middle class families to start a life.
 
Again, another opinion without giving it any thought :rolleyes:
It seems like we cannot have a useful thread in this forum without someone disrupting the topic that is being discussed here..

Every one has their own reasons to bring their parents. Definitely Medicare/ Medicaid is not the reason. :rolleyes:
Those who can "afford" to bring their parents are among those who have shown their financial eligibility to support their parents, (so that they don't become a public charge) and by virtue of what they make financially, pay huge taxes - the benefit of which they may or may not derive ex.. Social secuirty taxes. Again these are the same "people who work hard to pay for them". The common sense here is people who show financial eligibility to sponsor their parents are making more and therefore paying more taxes (thereby contributing towards federal funding etc.,) than those who "cannot afford" to sponsor their family.

And the parents in many cases are going to work, thereby paying the same taxes, which you claim "the hard working people pay". How can you say "Dont' bring your parents?'. It doesn't make any sense - and how are they going to be a burden on the state? They are either financially taken care of by the sponsors or work and make their own money. How are they any different from a spouse who is being sponsored? Are you trying to say that if a USC sponsors his spouse and if the spouse is in a life-threatening medical situation, and if they apply for emergency medicaid b'cos their medical plan doesn't cover it - then will you ask him "why did you sponsor your wife when you could not afford medical costs that run into thousands?" Emergencies are emergencies, regardless of whether it is a parent or spouse or otherwise!

What you are saying is over simplification of how taxes and federal funding and medicare etc work. The federal government/State has budgets that balance these things. Otherwise you or I as immigrants cannot be discussing these things in a forum living in the US. If you are so concerned about middle class and the taxes we pay, you must first raise your voice against where billions of tax payers money is going fruitless - the war and the aftermath!

Lastly, those who are bringing their parents here, at least some of them on this thread, had already sponsored their parents and are those who can "afford" normal medical healthcare. And the reasons for them bringing their parents here is not contingent on Medicaid or Medicare. They had decided to bring their parents regardless.

As you claim, if you have read the entire thread, the topic that was initially discussed here was how to obtain healthcare, for older people and what happens in case of a life threatening emergency. This country is not going to give anything for free without checking the life threatening emergency - that could happen to anyone -whether it be parents who are here on sponsorship, or a sponsored spouse or a natural born USC.
 
ejazharoon said:
jenimmi:

To answer your questions:

Parents may be eligible for Medicaid after 5 years of LPR. As page 11 of the attached link points out, however, this is a state option and all states except CO and UT have opted to cover such persons.

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/greenbook2003/MEDICAID.pdf

If they are over 65, income and assets will still be checked. Here are the income and asset limits for IN, for example:

http://www.indianajustice.org/Data/DocumentLibrary/Documents/1054478707.0/0105medicaid.pdf

If parents have been LPR's for 5 years, sponsor's income and assets may or may not be included for determining Medicaid eligibility. This is known as "sponsor deeming", see link below:

http://www.healthassistancepartnership.org/assets/docs/Medicaid_and_SCHIP_Eligibility_Rules17bb.doc

Are there alternatives other than Medicaid for nonworking LPR parents? Not sure, but High Risk Insurance Pools (see the link below for AR CHIP) may be one way to obtain coverage:

http://www.chiparkansas.org/eligibility/

Suzy: The link below appears to mean thta green card holders with 40 calendar quarters of work may be eligible for Medicare:

http://www.utahcares.utah.gov/infosourcemedicaid/Tables/Medicare_Decision_Tree.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links, ejazharoon.
I haven't checked them yet, but will do it soon and am sure will definitely be useful when there's a need. You seem to have done quite a bit of research on this and please post anything else you find that is relevant to the topic of this thread.

I hope that we can look past the odd comments that are troll-like in nature and continue posting what we find :D
 
payala said:
I think it's not fair for people to bring their parents here relying on Medicare or Medicaid or anything similar to that. That means that you're bringing all your family to the US and expect taxpayers to pay for that.
Click to expand...

You seem to be a newbie here; otherwise you would have known that there are so many people over this board alone who don't care about anyone else except for their selfish needs. So long their needs could be taken care of, that is all matter to them.

These people are real curse on this nation. They (not all) PURPOSELY bring their parents here so that their parents could be taken care of on the expense of taxpayers. They like to suck every single thing they could get their hands on from here. These people are bringing their sucking mentality here.

Anyway, it is nice to see an honest person like you.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Here we go.. :D :D :D

Let's work on ignoring the trolls who are ganging up :D :D

Just when I noticed the several obscenities sprinkled in the posts and wanted to bring it to the attention of the moderator, someone got scared and edited all their posts :D

P.S: Just funny and curious.. those trolls who have bankruptcy cases in Las Vegas.. How come they have a say on tax payer's money? :D :D
 
jenimmi said:
Just when I noticed the several obscenities sprinkled in the posts and wanted to bring it to the attention of the moderator, someone got scared and edited all their posts :D
Click to expand...

Are you referring to this original post?

JohnnyCash said:
Originally Posted by JohnnyCash
JohnnyCash
Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 338

Quote:
Originally Posted by payala
I think it's not fair for people to bring their parents here relying on Medicare or Medicaid or anything similar to that. That means that you're bringing all your family to the US and expect taxpayers to pay for that.


You seem to be a newbie here; otherwise you would have known that there are so many people over this board alone who don't care about anyone else except for their selfish needs. So long their needs could be taken care of, that is all matter to them.

These people are real curse on this nation. They PURPOSELY bring their parents here so that their parents could be taken care of on the expense of taxpayers. They like to suck every single thing they could get their hands on from here.Shame on these bastard people.

Anyway, it is nice to see an honest person like you.
Click to expand...
 
I knew someone was really gonna take it the wrong way. I know the original post was about finding healthcare for parents, and there is nothing wrong with that. It just bothered me when people started thinking about medicare and mediaid. It's like thinking "I'm gonna bring my parents here and in few years they can get everything for free with other people's money". I know many people don't think that way, I wasn't going against you or anyone in particular. It's for future reference, I just meant it so people would realize that they need to be responsible and if they bring anyone here (husband, parents, etc) they cannot rely on federal support to survive. That was all.
Again, sorry if I offended anyone in particular.
 
payala and others who dont want people to know their rights as well as their responsibilities.... no one WANTS to rely on medicaid or medicare.... we try to buy health insurance like millions of other people living her... and we are told no you cant buy insurance... we try to pay for our healthcare, but the cost is more than 3 or 4 times your annual salary... this is when government help comes in... no one is trying to exploit the system, but since we are allowed to live here and work and pay taxes, we also have rights, and one of these rights is to get healthcare when we need it.... everyone pays their regular doctors bills and their medications... these are expensive, but affordable, but who here can pay a hundred thousand dollars in cash at the drop of a hat??? I assure you no one can. The governement understands this and this is why they cover emergency medicaid for family based immigrants. by coming here and working and contributing to society , we are all benefitting this wonderful country, and in turn, this country benefits us. it is a win - win situation for everyone... they dont need people to point out to them that they should punish people who live and work here legally by preventing them from getting health care.... that would just be rediculous.
besides, by discussing this topic on this forum, we are simply trying to understand the system, so we know what we are or arent allowed to get ... to have someone threaten they will report the thread to government agencies is the most rediculous thing i have ever heard... for heavens sake go get a life and let people help each other without being harrassed.
 
Although I understand completely the health insurance problems, posts like these and others really hurt immigration issues when you think you are entitled to social service programs. This leads to the typical stereotype of immigrants just wanting to use the US for it's social service programs. One a lot of us are fighting to disprove.

Also... Don't play the "I pay my share of taxes" argument. Unless you were born here, your parents were working citizens, or came at an early age, you have not paid your share of taxes to support social service programs. Just living here 3-5 years and working does not cut it. Again, comments like that are hurting all immigrants.
 
so you think people should be allowed to come here and work, but if someone has a heart attack they should just sit at home and die?? what other options does anyone have??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top