To get started with KCHIP, you need to fill out an application. In order to do this, you will have to go to an eligibility office in your area. These offices are usually open from eight to five, and if you don’t know where one is, you can look it up in the phone book. You need to remember what you should take with, which is:

• two months worth of pay stubs for every working person that lives with you
• if you have any other type of income, such as Social Security, take the last award letter.
• proof that you have childcare with receipts from the daycare or nanny
• medical insurance info, but only if your kid had insurance at least si months ago

If your child was insured at some point within the past six months, there is certain information that you need to provide. This information includes what the company that insured your child was called, what plan your child had, and what the number of your policy or group was. You also need to provide the dates in which the policy was in effect, the person whose name is the main one on the policy, and anybody else whose name is on the policy.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

While you are in the office with the case worker, you will also be able to ask questions and request that he or she provide you with information about the program. It is now that is the best time to find out as much as you can about the child health care plan that your kid will be provided with, because while there are many health insurance companies that have open call lines for you to ring up and ask questions about your plan, it’s not so easy when you are getting your insurance from the government, so you should take advantage for this opportunity for clarification.

If the application or the interview do not satisfy, that doesn’t mean that your child will not be able to qualify for KCHIP. The case worker who gives you the interview is going to request that you bring back extra information so that they can determine your case. This can be frustrating, but just bear with it. If you don’t have the extra information back within ten days, then your kid won’t be able to get KCHIP, so make sure you turn it in on time.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Even if you do take a while to make a premium payment, but still pay it on or before the due date for the first payment, your child will still be covered during that time although you may have to be reimbursed and make the payment for their treatment initially. If your child gets approved, then his or her coverage begins that same day that you applied at the office, even if you weren’t approved yet. So if you had to take your kid to the doctor or hospital while waiting for approval, that is covered, too.

If you are sending the payment through mail, then you need to take precaution to send it at least a week ahead of time, so that the office has plenty of time to receive and process the payment before the due date. If you mail it on the due date, then your child will likely lose his or her coverage. The amount isn’t too much–every family pays twenty dollars a month, whether they have two kids or eight. If you don’t pay your premium, then you will have to pay twenty dollars more in order to apply again for coverage for your child.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

An example of a family who is 200% of the federal poverty level is a family with two adults and two kids that brings home slightly over forty thousand every year. There are different requirements for the number of people in every family. If you have a family of five people, the cap is $48,260. For six, it is $55, 220. For seven, it is $62,180. If you have more children than that, contact your KCHIP office that is local to find out what the maximum income for your family size is. The income, you should be aware, is based on how much you make every year before taxes are taken out, not what you actually bring home.

The income limits for KCHIP don’t always remain the same, as they have to be adjusted for inflation and changes in wages. If you are unsure of your income, make sure that each April you check and see what the new limits are so that you don’t waste time applying only to find out that your are ineligible.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I’m just been accepted as a student at Columbia University in New York, and I heard that you have to have health insurance to go there. Is that true?

Albert

Yep.

You could say that Columbia is looking out for its students by requiring every student who attends classes there full time to be covered by a decent health insurance plan. It’s both trying to make sure that it is not responsible for any student accidents and to make sure that its students are provided with proper health care. It can seem like a huge burden for many students to buy expensive health insurance after many are already putting forty thousand dollars a year into Colombia just for tuition and their dorm. It’s important as a student at CU, then, to compare health insurance quotes and determine which plan is best and cheapest for you.

Like most universities, Columbia University has clinicians on the campus who can help treat you if you fall ill or get injured and can prescribe you medication. However, there are many emergency situations that these clinicians are not qualified to deal with, and Columbia wants its students to be able to go get good health care from a hospital at these times.

Columbia doesn’t just leave its students hanging out to dry and having to find health insurance coverage on their own or else. Rather, it offers a program called the Student Medical Insurance Plan with which students can register for basic or comprehensive coverage. Whenever you register for classes full time at this school, your name is immediatly enrolled in this plan. If you already have health insurance and those don’t want to use the Columbia health insurance plan, then you can submit a waiver.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Does Columbia University’s health insurance plan cover dental as well?

Amber

Sure it does!

Luckily for full time students at Columbia University, they are able to get a lot of health insurance coverage at a decent price, with flexible rates and a nice referral system. They are also covered by the Columbia health insurance plan for dental, which is something that many health coverage plans lack. It’s a good thing, too, because many Americans avoid getting regular dental check ups because they have no insurance or it is not covered by their insurance, and the results much later are terrible on their teeth.

The dental care coverage extends beyond students themselves and to their families as well, and it is very comprehensive. There are several kinds of programs, and when you pick one for you and your family you should think about what kind of dentist and business you want your family to go to, how easy it is to get an appointment there, what the wait times are with and without an appointment, where it is located, and how much it costs.

The range of dental plans varies. Some come with certain networks from which you have to choose a dentist, and others are more flexible, operating on a referral based system. If you are going for just a regular tooth care and check up visit, the co pay is cheap for many of them, at only five dollars. For actual tooth care that isn’t a well check up, the cost is even less.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama

Me and my kids aren’t citizens of the United States, but we’re living here legally and I’m not able to afford health insurance for us. Am I able to provide them with health care through Florida’s KidCare child health insurance?

Emilie

Maybe so.

For people who aren’t citizens of the United States, the path to getting state sponsored health insurance for their children might be even more difficult than for other people. There are several extra requirements that determine whether or not the child fits into a certain group that makes it to where they are able to receive this help from the state. For the most part, in order to get KidCare, you have to be a citizen. But there are a few children who can still get it even if they weren’t born in the U.S. They’re called ‘qualified aliens’.

People who are legally residing in the U.S. but aren’t citizens might be eligible for Florida child health insurance if they fit the following criteria.

• Are Ameriasians.
• Come from Haiti or Cuba
• Are refugees and have received certification from the Office of Refugee Resettlement for being trafficking victims
• Are the children of someone who is in the military or is a veteran of it
• Kids who have resided legal as residents for at least five years
• People in asylum, here as refugees, or who have had their removal withheld.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I’m a worried grandmother whose granddaughter has been getting sick a lot lately, but her parents don’t have the money for health insurance nor do they have the money to take her to the doctor. What can I, as a grandparent, do?

Millie

I’m glad you asked.

You would be surprised by how much exactly a grandparent can do, because according to state laws in Florida, they are not entirely without rights as concerns their grandchildren. It may be true that a grandparent is not allowed to apply for health insurance for a child, even when that child does not have child health insurance or any real way of getting it, but there are still some things that the grandparent can do.

According to Florida Statute Chapter 743.0645, you have the right to get health care on the behalf of your grandchild. This means that you can take your granddaughter to the emergency room or the doctor’s office, and can consent to major things. This right only comes, though, after the doctor on duty has tried many times to get in tough with the parent, and the parent has also not declared that the child can not be treated in such a way.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

My grandson doesn’t have Florida health insurance, and it really worries me. I know about Florida child health insurance programs like KidCare. Am I able to apply for the insurance for him?

Luther

Unfortunately, no.

It’s naturally to care and be worried about your grandkids when you are a grandparent. That’s just how love works. It is even more worrisome when you see that your grandchildren are so vulnerable to a health disaster and might not be getting proper care, and their parents are either unable or unwilling to get this care for them. As a grandparent, this will make you desire more than anything to fix this problem, but because you do not have custody of the children, your rights are restricted.

That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing that you can do, though. Being a grandparent, you are able to look up information about the child health insurance programs in the state of Florida so that you can find out what can be done for the child. While you can’t apply, you can discuss your findings with the parents, and even have an application for child health insurance sent to them in the mail.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I live in Florida and I need Florida health insurance for my three children. How do I know if I qualify?

Annie

Glad you asked, Annie.

All states offer Medicaid, but there are many people who don’t qualify for it, but at the same time are unable to afford regular private medical health insurance. One way to get the children of these people covered by child health insurance is to apply for the Florida health insurance KidCare program, which does have income requirements, but is for the next income level up of people who don’t qualify for Medicaid.

There are several requirements that need to be met by a child before they can be provided with Florida health insurance in the KidCare plan.

• Age. For a child to get Florida health insurance via KidCare, they have to be less than nineteen years old. This applies even if the kid is still a dependent of their parents or attending college. Coverage ends at nineteen.
• Lack insurance. It’s not possible, if a child is covered by their parent’s employer Florida health insurance, to qualify for KidCare, even if the coverage they have is limited. A child must not have any other health insurance in order to get KidCare Florida health insurance.
• Income level. There is a certain top level of income under which the parents’ level of income must be before their child can qualify for KidCare Florida health insurance. This is more than the requirement for Medicaid.
• Citizenship. The applicant does not absolutely have to be a citizen of the United States, but if they are not, then they must fall into a certain category of non citizens in order to be eligible for health insurance through the state.
• Cannot be the child of someone who works for the state and is able to get health insurance through the state.
• Is not in a public institution.

These many requirements do leave many people out in terms of being able to afford Florida health insurance for their children, but it does a good job, for the most part, of covering the gap between those who can get Medicaid and those who can pay for their own medical health insurance.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.