Insurance, Insurance

What a shock it was for me to get a letter back in October telling me that Kevin aged out of the Insurance Program that he was in here in North Carolina.  BUT! It was an even bigger shock when I went over to the pharmacy to ask them how much his medication would be without insurance.  Well over $900 a month.  So with that thought I applied for Medicaid for him.  After waiting and getting requests for the same documents 3 times I was finally able to get someone on the phone.  Sad to say that I understood more things than they did, maybe I've just been doing this longer.  Anyway, at the end of the conversation they found that he wouldn't qualify for Medicaid either. Let me explain one thing here. If he got $1 of SSI (Supplemental Security Income) then he would have qualified automatically for Medicaid. He doesn't qualify for SSI anymore due to our income.  Some of my friends and family were rather surprised by that because Kevin is disable by the state.  The truth is you can be disable, but still have an income.  That's the loop hole for Kevin.  He and I make just a little too much to qualify for Medicaid.  My income counts because he lives with me and I am his guardian. In the end I had no choice, but to see how the Affordable Health Care site worked.  I found that I qualified for a tax credit, but that kind of scared me because it said I most likely wouldn't get a refund on my income tax return if I used the whole tax credit. I like my refund. It's kind of like Christmas in April for me, so first I checked to see how much the payments would be if I didn't use the tax credit. Over $600 a month and if you have never paid for private insurance I'm sure the amount would be a shock to you.  I did once and could afford to keep it, so $600 for insurance is better than over $900 for medication, but still way too high. Oh and watch out for the deductible. Make sure you can afford to pay both the insurance payments and any medical bills until that deductible is met.  In the end I used half of the tax credit and prayed. With that it cut the payments down to something I could work with and not have a huge deductible.  On top of that I added myself to the insurance, which is something I haven't had in years.  I'll give it a year to see how it works out for us.  As for Garrett he is still covered until he turns 19 unless something changes with that.  Lets all hope and pray that 2014 is a great year for all of us.  Better yet it Will Be a Better Year!  Think positive folks.