Lost SSI, Now have to drop Insurance

[Cardinals#1]

Well we lost Dustin's SSI. Hubby got just enough of a raise for use to not qualify for SSI anymore. Now instead of being ahead with the new raise we are in the hole about $63.00 every month. Thanks to the taxes coming out of his check we are living on $63.00 less a month.

We are now facing the decision to have to drop the kids off Blue Cross Blue Shield , because it's getting to were with losing the extra $63.00 per month we can't afford to keep it anymore. We also have IL. KidCare, so I guess we will have to depend soely on it.

I figured it up last night, if my hubby gets another raise next year we won't be allowed to have private insurance along w/the IL KidCare. SO I guess now would be the time to just drop the BCBS.

Anyone else been in this boat or getting into this boat we are in?

We figured it up, that if we keep our private & lose KidKare next year, we could easily end up in major Medical bill Debt Hell. We really can't afford to get into more debt. We are already taking from Peter to pay Paul ,"if you know what I mean."

Kidcare will cost us $25.00 per month for both kids. $5.00 for each doctor's visit, $3.00 or $5.00 for Rx drugs.

Our current BCBS has a $2000.00 family deductible, $500.00 RX deductible. Max. $5000.00 limit we'd have to pay for hospital or out patient services. Gosh that's $7500.00, we could never afford that!

We really feel we are inbetween a rock in a hard place.

I really do not understand President Bush's thinking with him Vetoing the increase in funding for the SCHIP, (Children's health insurance). His comment on this was that he doesn't feel the goverment should be funding for insurance that Middle class families could already afford to pay for themselves. "well I don't know what Middle Class family he is referring to", because most of the people we know in our area are in the same boat. I think President Bush Has the Middle Class confused with the Upper Class.

[NJenn]

Ugh. You're in a bit of a pickle here, but know that you're not alone in this one. Unfortunately this happens to a lot of people with disabilities and their families. I can totally see why folks are reluctant to take better jobs/promotions and just generally move up financially when benefits are at stake.

If you've been disqualified for SSI by a thin margin (and it sounds like that may be the case), it may be worth consulting with a good tax attorney who is versed in disability law. There are a million things that you can write off (all legal of course) on the basis of your child's disability. That might bring your Adjusted Gross Income down enough to re-qualify for SSI.

I have some literature on this at work (I am a health policy analyst), but am out of the office today. I'll take a look tomorrow.

[Nick,Brian,andJon'sMom]

We are in the same situation that you are. If we earn to much we lose the SSI and we really need the secondary insurance because we would be sunk without it. It is a visicous circle that we get in.

Do you have 2 kids that receive SSI or just Dustin? If you had 2 on it they do allow you to have a little more leeway for the income.

Hopefully things will work out that you are able to keep the SSI and make everything work.

Marcie

(Mom to Jonathan 7, hydro, epilepsy, headaches, and etc....)

[Cardinals#1]

hi, nope we just have Dustin that's on SSI.

We have no way of adjusting our income. My husband is a manager now & his income is only going to climb up every year. Unfortunately we can't take anything less on his paycheck just to keep the SSI. We were getting around $233.00. Husband raise gave us $250.00 more per month before taxes, but after taxes, were only left with about $170.00 of that. SO I figure the $233we were getting trade it for the $170.00 , so were lost $63.00.

That $63.00 was what we had extra before the raise to go towards paying for The Blue Cross Blue SHield.

I guess it's something that we are just going to have to learn to live with. Were going to have to learn to cut back on eating out, eating less meat, buying more stuff on sale, making less trips to town, get buy on less.

I'm looking into re-taking CNA course & hope to get re-certfied. Maybe I can pick up a third shift job part-time or something. THird shift is not my shift of choice but I can't think of how my mom would manage taking care of Dustin, She's having problems with lifting. SHe's had one hernia surgery in the last 3 yrs. & due to lifting at work, (cashier at grocery store) she needs another surgery. She's about to retire ,if all go as planned. She could at least be available to get them ready for school. Watch them when schools out, so I can sleep. There's just no way she could handle lifting on him every day year round.

NJenn, unfortuantely it was more than a thin margin, we actually are a family of 4. PUt it this way if we were a family of 5 , my husband's raise was large & it would have been close to not qualifying had we been a family of 5. But what's so crazy even with being such a large raise, the taxes the government takes out kills almost $80 to $90 bucks of it each month, so we end up with less money coming in then more.

Also SSI always looks at what we gross before anything comes out of my husbands check. They do not care that we pay over $250.00 a month for health insurance. I really think these agencies shouldn't look at the gross but what is left after the taxes come out. I mean you don't have the gross amount to live off of, you have what's left. I guess they think you shouldn't pay any taxes or that no taxes come out of your paycheck.

Marcie, Thanks for the well wishes. Husband had to cancel the Blue Cross Blue Shield on the kids today. We have to pay SSI back $233.33 for Sept. because Husbands raise was retro back to Sept. "gesh not that I knew he was even going to get a raise".

You think I could get it waived since it was not my fault they overpaid me? I didn't know my husband was going to get a raise. I even called them as soon as I found out to try & stop them from paying the Oct. payment, but guess what It got deposited directely into our checking. I haven't touched it though. We'll just end up writing them a check out for Oct. but I don't have the money from Sept. I don't have a extra $233.33 laying around to pay them back either.

Never a dull moment around here these days!

Really I'm going to say it again, "where's Bush get off thinking that Middle class families have the extra money to afford to pay for their own kids insurance?"

We have just moved into the middle class tax bracket & we sure as heck can't afford insurance for our kids now.

[Nick,Brian,andJon'sMom]

I am sorry about the SSI mess. Like you we are so careful on how much we earn every month and I never look forward to my dh getting a raise because it messes everything up. We actually over estimate our income each month so we aren't constantly in overpayment.

I agree with you on the Bush healthcare veto. I think that it stinks because it hurts the middle class the most.

Marcie

[Nat Hyland]

At one stage I was earning only $225/week, which was about $5 more than I would receive on the dole, so I wasn't entitled to any dole at all. This is the sort of thing that doesn't encourage people to work. It meant that I was not entitled to a health care card, meaning any doctor's appointments wouldn't be bulk billed, and I was not entitled to any discounts on other things, such as car registration and utility bills.

I too am considering dropping my health insurance, as it is costing me $72/fortnight, which is almost impossible to sustain while I'm on Austudy, and I am often only working to pay this insurance. I have never used the insurance since I got it two years ago. It is just a waste of money I don't have. Many thanks to the Howard government - NOT!

Nat.

[RathyKay]

(((Hugs))) No advice. Sorry you're stuck between the old rock and a hard place. Actually, can you adjust your deductions so the gov't takes out less $$$ from each paycheck? Or does that just mean you need to cough up more $$$ on April 15?

[mama z]

Be careful. Here in Iowa if you have private insurance and drop it so you can get Medicaid or Hawk-I (same as Kidcare) then you won't qualify for either. I know it doesn't make sense, but I've seen it happen.

Check and see if you can get something called HIPP. I'm not sure how it works with the Kidcare. But here in Iowa when we have Medicaid the HIPP (health insurance premium program) pays for the family health insurance, as long as it is cost effective for the state.

Do you have any waiver services. There should be a "Katie Becket" (Title 5) program which bases the need for services on the diagnosis and the income of the child, not the parents. It's called different things in different states and I know there are waiting lists in many areas.

HTH,
Laura

[Cardinals#1]

Laura, hi, in IL you can have private insurance plus Il state insurance up to a certain income level. Once that income level is reached for family members in the household & income you lose the ability to have KiDCare along with the Private insurance.

If you're first signing up for KidCare alone, you must have gone w/o insurance for less than 12 months before one can be eligible for KidCare.

But we already have KidCare & are income is not quite at the level yet , so we figure now's the time , since we can no longer afford the BCBS premiums for the Kids, to just drop it. By the time my husband's next raise time comes around, next Oct. He will probably be at the income level were we could no longer continue with the KidCare Plus have the BCBS, other words we would either have to continue with the BCBC (can't do now since we can't afford it anymore) or go without insurance on the kids for almost a year(can't do that either because Dustin has got to have insurance for his therapies , specialist, his many med's he's on, plus the kids are always sick when school starts.

We've had BCBS plus KidCare up till my husband's huge raise, which caused us to lose Dustin's SSI. We ended up in the hole about $63.00. That's a big deal for use because we are robbing Peter to pay Paul before the raise. I know it doesn't make any sense to get a large raise & end up in the hole , but the taxes are coming out of his paycheck & we didn't pay any taxes on the SSI, so that's why we are in the hole.

We also figured up the $ we'd have to cough up that we don't have for the family deductible $2000.00, Max. for surgeries we'd have to pay per year $7000.00, pluse we have to pay a $500.00 co pay for med. before they'd kick in & pay anything towards med's. So we figured with Dustin's CP, him needing all the medical services & what not, that we could easily get into debit more so than what we are already in, which we can not afford to get into anymore debt at this point.

[Cardinals#1]

(((Hugs))) No advice. Sorry you're stuck between the old rock and a hard place. Actually, can you adjust your deductions so the gov't takes out less $$$ from each paycheck? Or does that just mean you need to cough up more $$$ on April 15?
Kathy,

Hi, I thought of that, but the amount that we'd potentially have extra each check would just get blowed & we wouldn't know where it went. "that's what my husband always says anyway when I suggest him dropping the 0 dependents claims. We hope we don't lose too miuch of our earned income credit. My husband alway likes to get the big tax refund check in Feb. so we can pay some Credit cards off. We always have balances on the darn things. I wish we didn't have to use them but we always seem to run short on money & end up needing to use them.

Gosh I sure hope we don't end up having to pay in anything now. That would be a huge nightmare.

Can't I do up a mock tax, using 06's tables , but estimate, since the amount every month is the same, "he's on salary"? I now the standard deductions always change some what every year, but it would maybe give me a idea of what if anything we are going to get back.