Can You Get Benefits If You Are Homeless
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While there are plenty of programs out there designed to help people without a living space, its not always easy to know how to get benefits if you are homeless. Most government benefits programs, like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, require ample paperwork and documentation. Without a stable residence, you may not have the information requested of you on the application forms. Naturally, this can make it difficult to even start the process, which may cause you to give up on the prospect of getting benefits at all.
So, can you get benefits if you are homeless? Fortunately, the answer is yes. Unfortunately, its not always easy to get them for the reasons outlined above.
However, we are here to give you hope. There are definitely ways to get benefits if you are homeless. The key is just knowing where to look and what information you need to acquire beforehand. So, in todays guide, we will help answer the titular question and provide you with the resources you need to get benefits if you are homeless or facing housing instability.
Contents:
Impact Of Home Ownership On Medicaid Eligibility Considering Marital Status & Medicaid Type
When applying for Medicaid long term care, many families are concerned they will not be eligible due to home ownership or will have to give up their home to qualify. For most Medicaid applicants, neither of these is true. The good news is most applicants can retain their home and qualify for Medicaid. The bad news is that home ownership as it relates to Medicaid eligibility is confusing and, if not managed properly, can result in a family losing their home. There are a variety of factors that determine whether a home will impact eligibility including marital status, the number of applicants, the type of Medicaid program, the home equity value and the state of residence.
Do I Qualify For Medicaid
Medicaid provides free or low-cost health coverage to some low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Many states have expanded their Medicaid programs to cover all people below certain income levels. Medicaid qualifications depend partly on whether your state has expanded its program.
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How Marital Status Impacts A Homes Medicaid Exemption
When it comes to determining ones Medicaid long term care eligibility, another factor that makes a difference in a home exemption is marital status. Medicaid eligibility has three different potential categories for applicants: Single, Married with one applicant, or Married with two applicants. Additionally, Medicaid has some stipulations based on the type of care that the beneficiary will receive. This depends on whether the beneficiary will receive care while still living at home or will need to move to a nursing home.
Single Applicant
Single applicants that will continue to live in the house will not have the home counted against them if the equity is under the states equity valuation . However, if a single recipient is moving to a nursing home, their home may need to be sold unless they file an intent to return home. In this case, individuals can retain the home if the house is valued under the equity valuation.
The home will likely need to be sold for individuals over the equity amount and who have not filed an intent to return. Selling the house would likely disqualify the individual until they spend down the proceeds on their care. Once their assets have been spent down sufficiently, they can apply or re-apply and qualify for Medicaid.
To be clear, if the applicant is looking to receive Medicaid long term care services while living in the home , their home is exempt.
Get Help Finding Health Insurance
Identifying programs, understanding eligibility, and applying for and using your health insurance can be difficult, especially if youre not used to advocating for yourself. You can get help from a health insurance navigator: a trained individual or organization that helps you look for health insurance you can afford.
Navigators not only identify the coverage you can qualify for they also help with the application process. Application support can be beneficial for removing barriers if you dont have internet access. Navigators tend to be multilingual, so you can get assistance in your language if you do not speak English. A navigator can also help you understand how to utilize health insurance plans best and act as trusted advisers throughout the entire journey.
Its free to work with a health insurance navigator. They are unbiased and not affiliated with agents or brokers, so theyre working in your best interest to find health coverage that works for you.
are committed to increasing the number of people with health care coverage, Kimmel explains, noting that navigators are industry experts and often compassionate individuals.
To find a health insurance navigator, you can visit LocalHelp.Healthcare.gov. Enter your city, state, or ZIP code to find results or call 318-2596 or TTY at 889-4325. Someone will pick up the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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Getting Health Insurance As A Vulnerable Youth
There are three main health insurance programs available for vulnerable young adults, including:
- Living significantly under the federal poverty level
- With disabilities
You can get health insurance as a young person even if your parents or guardians do not have coverage.
Qualifying for a marketplace plan
If you dont qualify for Medicaid or CHIP, you can still access low-cost coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. You can get a subsidy that pays for some of your monthly health insurance premium through the marketplace if you have a household income between 100% and 400% of the FPL.
Applying for a marketplace plan
Visit Healthcare.gov to start an application. Youll fill out personal information, including your name, age, Social Security number, and income. Once you apply, youll find out how much of a subsidy you qualify for and can compare and sign up for available plans.
There are many options available to youth, often at no or low-cost to them or their families, Kimmel says. I urge anyone knowing or working with a vulnerable youth or their family to reach out to a navigator for help.
Other Benefits If You Are Homeless
While Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are some of the primary benefits that homeless individuals and families need to acquire, they are not the only available benefits if you are homeless. In addition to hundreds of shelters and food pantries around the country that provide food, clothing, shelter, and financial assistance to the homeless, there are also various government programs dedicated to providing benefits if you are homeless.
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Medicaid Expansion And Housing
Because Medicaid can cover certain-housing related services, Medicaid expansion can also increase access to housing support services and permanent supportive housing and help recipients secure employment and income.12,13 Permanent supportive housing is an effective intervention for improving health outcomes for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and for decreasing overall health care costs,13,14,15 since it provides long-term affordable housing and needed services .15 A study in Oregon reported a 55% reduction in Medicaid costs 1 year after individuals experiencing homelessness received permanent supportive housing.16 Another study in Chicago found that providing transitional and long-term housing to individuals experiencing homelessness led to a 29% reduction in hospital days and a 24% reduction in emergency department visits.17 Similarly, a program in New York State that provided 2300 supportive housing units and housing support services for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness18 reduced the average number of inpatient days and emergency department visits over a 12-month period.19 The program also reduced average Medicaid costs by $9526 per person over a 2-year period.20
Permanent supportive housing is an effective intervention for improving health outcomes for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and for decreasing overall health care costs.
How To Get Help If Youre Homeless
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Figuring out how to get help if youre homeless can be extremely difficult. You may have limited access to both online and in-person resources. Additionally, the difficulties of being homeless can make it harder to fill out applications for assistance. You may not have any physical address to put down on forms, making it more complicated to secure the funds or housing you need. Fortunately, there are various ways to get help you just need to know where to look.
So, how can you find emergency help with housing? What resources can you use to find food, health care, and employment as a homeless person? Finally, what government programs are available to meet your immediate financial and housing needs? We will answer all of these questions and more, but first, lets look at what you can do to ensure that you have a roof over your head as soon as possible.
Contents:
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Health Insurance Options For At
Learn about affordable health insurance for youth who are at risk, homeless, or otherwise vulnerable.
Insurance options can be a difficult thing to navigate for adults, let alone young people experiencing significant hardship. Dont assume that you cant get health care if you have limited resources or lack family support. Options are available for young people to receive essential health coverage, often for free or low cost even if you cant get health insurance from your family.
This guide can help you or a loved one find the health care you need as easily as possible. Learn what types of health insurance are available to vulnerable youth, who qualifies, and what coverage includes, along with resources where you can get help.
What If Im Turned Down By Medicaid
- You may be able to buy a private health plan through the Marketplace instead for the 2018 plan year in the fall. You may qualify for savings based on your income through a premium tax credit and savings on out-of-pocket costs.
- If you don’t qualify for either Marketplace or Medicaid savings, you still have options. Learn more here.
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How Medicaid Expansion Can Impact The Homeless
For all of these reasons, fewer than 20 percent of homeless Californians were on Medicaid before the Affordable Care Act was passed. So the impact of Medicaid expansion for homeless people was almost immediate. Michael R. Cousineau describes innovative measures in many cities which used Medicaid funds to improve supportive housing and mental health services out in the community to serve men and women who otherwise avoid the mental heath system.
The experience of Baltimore nonprofit, Healthcare for the Homeless, exemplifies the pattern seen in many expansion states. Before ACA, only 30 percent of their patients were insured. Now, 90 percent are insured. Comparisons across states around ACAs passage demonstrated much sharper coverage increases among the homeless in Medicaid expansion states. Moreover, homeless services providers used the resources available through Medicaid expansion to expand services, increase outreach, and to take other steps that improve care for people who live in shelters or the street, or who are in danger of losing a place to live.
How Can Homeless Get Insurance
What is a person supposed to do when their homeless and in need of medical care very badly such as dental , mental health , vision and most important is the hep c virus their homeless and attention like yesterday and they cant find a job due to the fact they have a record and their trying but no one is willing to help please tell me what to do to help this person.
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Can Vulnerable Youth Get Health Insurance
If your access to health insurance is limited due to poverty, homelessness, or other challenging life circumstances, you are eligible for low-cost or no-cost coverage. However, getting access to health care can feel daunting.
Determining eligibility for health insurance programs can be complicated, acknowledges Meghan Kimmel, president of Portico Healthnet, a Minnesota-based organization that helps uninsured individuals and families access affordable coverage and care by navigating the health care system.
Considerations that impact youth eligibility for health care coverage include:
- How much money you or your parents make
- Tax dependency status
- Immigration status, if applicable
Are you not sure how to get connected with health insurance for homeless and at-risk youth? Ask for help. The best option is to find a navigator to help with the options and the application, Kimmel says.
Reduced Healthcare Debt Can Mean Fewer Evictions
Medicaid expansion also prevents homelessness in another way. Insurance and medical care are very expensive. So are private insurance deductibles and copays that are essentially absent from Medicaid. Medicaid protects people against severe financial hardships, and puts more money in the pockets of poor people who desperately need the help. Results from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment and other studies demonstrate that Medicaid coverage significantly improved participants self-reported health status, and reduced the incidence of depression. In no small part, these benefits are linked to reducing stress and anxiety associated with unpaid bills.
Source: Zewde, et al. American Journal of Public Health, October 2019, p. 1381.
As the OHIE authors reported, Medicaid coverage reduced medical debts sent to collection agencies, lowered the likelihood of borrowing money or skipping other bill payments to cover medical expenses, and virtually eliminated catastrophic out-of pocket medical expenditures.
A Columbia University team led by Naomi Zewde recently compared patterns of rental housing evictions between expansion and non-expansion states. Given the financial realities of Medicaid, its perhaps unsurprising that Medicaid expansion was associated with a significant reduction in the rate of apartment renters evicted from their homes.
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Help With Medicaid Sign
Medicaid, currently known as Health First Colorado, is an insurance program for low-income individuals funded by the state and the federal government. Medicaid will pay for your doctor and dentist visits, emergency room care, medicine, preventive care such as health screenings and immunizations and other procedures and treatments, including care received outside of the Stout Street Health Center. We can help you enroll.
Medicaid/Health First Colorado services include:
- Hospital and Emergency Room Care
- Maternity, Prenatal, and Newborn Care
- Family Planning
- Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy
- Breast and Cervical Cancer Program
Helping People Navigate Medi
Beilenson, the Sacramento County Health Services director, often visits homeless encampments to see for himself what challenges people face. During one visit recently, he heard from several individuals that they did have Medi-Cal but never went to the doctor because they didnt know who their assigned primary care physician was. Such notifications are sent through the mail.
He said his outreach workers make sure individuals find out their assigned physician, even if that means having caseworkers receive the mail at the Sacramento Covered office and then deliver it themselves to encampments.
Letting us receive peoples mail helps keep people from falling through the cracks. Its not perfect, but its better than many places, Beilenson said.
Even if individuals receive that mail, its still often difficult for them to access care.
C.J. Tobe, community health director for the Desert AIDS Project, a federally qualified health clinic in Palm Springs, said the clinic recently changed how it does outreach after learning that many of the homeless individuals it serves have Medi-Cal.
In mid-July, Desert AIDS Projects outreach team fanned out in Sunrise Park, the central park in downtown Palm Springs, with the goal of teaching people how to find out who their primary care physician was, how to identify a doctor who accepts Medi-Cal within walking distance of where they sleep at night and how to change who their doctor is if they wish.
About This Series
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Who Can Get Medicaid
- No matter your state, you may qualify for Medicaid based on your income, household size, disability, family status, and other factors. But if your state has expanded Medicaid coverage, you can qualify based on your income alone.
- Enter your household size and state. We’ll tell you who is eligible for Medicaid, if your state expanded and if you qualify for Medicaid based only on your income.
- If you think you have Medicaid eligibility, you can create an account and fill out a Marketplace application. If it looks like anyone in your household qualifies for Medicaid or CHIP, we’ll send your information to your state agency. They’ll contact you about enrollment. You can apply any time of year.
- If you don’t qualify for Medicaid, we’ll tell you if you qualify for financial help to buy a Marketplace health plan instead.
Updating Medicaid Information Relevant To Homeless Individuals
In conjunction with the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation , CMS has updated two reports. Both reports examine the use of Medicaid to cover services for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness, particularly in Permanent Supportive Housing . The Primer on Using Medicaid for People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness and Tenants in Permanent Supportive Housing provides a how-to guide on the various ways that Medicaid can cover such services, including the Medicaid authorities and new options provided under the Affordable Care Act. The Medicaid and Permanent Supportive Housing for Chronically Homeless Individuals: Emerging Practices from the Field describes existing practices in the field of communities currently serving homelessness and formerly homeless individuals Medicaid beneficiaries.
In anticipation of changes stemming from the Affordable Care Act, HHS, ASPE, contracted with Abt Associates in October 2010 to conduct a study to explore the roles that Medicaid, Health Center, and other HHS programs might play in providing services for people who had experienced chronic homelessness before moving into permanent supportive housing .
This study examined the intersection of three pieces of a complex puzzle that if assembled correctly can end chronic homelessness:
- Chronic homelessness itself
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