Income eligibility for KCHIP Lexington health insurance
Medicaid is one of the easier types of federal assistance to get, but it still disqualifies many families who are unable to provide health insurance for their children. The number of families without child health insurance in Lexington, Kentucky is particularly high, and that is why the state program, KCHIP, exists to help families who fall through the Medicaid gap receive assistance for their children. The decision of who is and isn’t eligible for KCHIP depends on the age of the children involved and how much their parents make. You don’t have to be below the poverty level to qualify your kids for KCHIP–the cap is 200% of the poverty level.
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.
What Else Do I Need to Know About the Kentucky Child Health Insurance Plan?
Many children are provided with health insurance by their parents or through their parents’ employer, but many times that health insurance is less than perfect. Child health insurance often does not cover the types of things that children need most, and if you have only partial insurance coverage, you may want to get assistance from the state of Kentucky to help you supplement that coverage so that your child does not go without. Unfortunately, you can’t get KCHIP if your kid is already insured, no matter how sparely. What you can do is apply for Medicaid.
If you choose to cancel your insurance policy and get KCHIP, then your child may have to wait six months before they can receive child health insurance coverage through this state insurance plan. This will never be the case for families who make little enough to qualify for KCHIP and not be required to pay a premium. However, if you are trying to insure a previously covered infant and your income is at least 186% of the federal poverty level, then you will have to wait six months. The same applies to any child up to the age of eighteen whose family makes at least 156% of the federal poverty level. If you lost your insurance in circumstances that you could not take charge of, you can get this waiting period waived.
There are children who may have been previously insured but who do not need to wait, nor pay a premium, in order to receive KCHIP. They are able to be insured as soon as they are approved, regardless of how they came to be uninsured. These children include those between the ages of one and five whose parents make at least 134% of the federal poverty level, and at least 150%; and kids between six and eighteen whose parents make at least 101% and at most 150%.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
What can a grandparent do for their grandchild without health insurance?
Reader question:
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.
Grandparents and child health insurance in Florida
Reader question:
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 can’t pay for an individual medical health insurance plan!
Reader question:
I can’t pay for an individual medical health insurance plan! What do I do?
Greg
I’ll help you.
There are a lot of reasons that somebody might not be able to afford individual medical health insurance coverage. Sometimes, if you are a student in college, you might have recently been dropped from your parents’ health insurance plan and, busy with school and having only a part time job, might find it difficult to pay for your own. If you find yourself in this situation you should see what kind of deals your college has to offer when it comes to health insurance.
Even if you aren’t a student, there is something there to help you. A lot of federal programs exist that can either provide someone with medical health insurance or help them to get it, so long as you are eligible.
- Medicaid. This is for people who have a low income and are pregnant, or for their children. It does not cover the adult, though, unless they are pregnant, so if you have children but are also looking for health insurance for yourself, this won’t provide all that you need.
- Medicare. This is most often used for people who are sixty five and up and people who have disabilities that make it difficult for them to get work and provide for their own medical health insurance. It also provides for people who are in the later stages of renal disease.
- Children’s Health Insurance Program. This covers the gap between Medicaid and actually being able to afford health insurance on your own. You have to make a very low income to qualify for Medicaid, and if you make more than the eligibility mark but still can’t handle the high medical health insurance costs, CHIP can help. Again, though, it only provides for children.
A lot of states have their own plans that help children with parents who can’t afford medical health insurance get insured. This doesn’t help the parent, but there are some states that do extend this coverage to insure the parent of said children as well, although not very many states do this.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.