Irresponsible at all levels – gaming the health care system

De­jah Col­lier is a waitress, themepark ride oper­a­tor, mother of two, [unmarried and had first child at age 18 – my note] uninsured—and a sign of the con­tin­u­ing challenge in widen­ing cov­er­age under the fed­eral health law.

Ms. Col­lier, a 24-year-old in the Den­ver area, had en­rolled in the Medicaid fed­eral-state in­surance pro­gram to cover a hos­pi­tal de­liv­ery for her sec­ond son but let her enroll­ment lapse later. Un­der the Af­ford­able Care Act, her family’s income is low enough that they would all likely still qual­ify for the pro­gram, but they haven’t gone through the process to sign up again.

“It just be­came less impor­tant,” she said, adding that the fam­ily is healthy, and happy to pay cash for oc­ca­sional services.  Source: Wall Street Journal 2-1-16

imageHappy to pay cash?”  That’s good to know. Eligibility for Medicaid in CO limits income for a family of three to about $27,724. (138% of the FPL).

I guess you can be flexible and just lazy about enrollment when you can sign up for coverage at any time (no enrollment period) and even have coverage retroactively effective up to three months. And of course, your income is too low to worry about the Obamacare penalty.

One comment

  1. I do not see the problem, you do. Let her pay cash for the services she needs. That way tax dollars are saved. When or if she enrolls, then the tax payers will have to pay for most of her premiums. She is saving the taxpayers money, what is wrong with that?

    Like

Leave a Reply