Taking care of an elderly parent under ACA (secondary, spouse, apply)

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by Sabrina Smith

Hi, our mother is 89 and alone over seas. The only hurdle in bringing her to the USA is health insurance. She has no income and little assets. I was wondering if the gentleman in the same situation solved this problem with his mother and Obama care. Please advise.

Why does she have "NO income"? Doesn't your hone country provide for its people? Did she ever work at all in her life? If you are sponsoring your parent, aren't you supposed to provide for them? Why are you do content to hoist that responsibility on American tsxpayers? Does your country pay for non-contributing foreigners who emigrate to your country?

[Pch911]

Originally Posted by charlygal

Joke right? Some people are paying $100 months. ALL types of insurance have copays.

If you want to know the truth, just go to the official website.

Charlygal, please clarify your $100 comment. I specifically asked OP if he chose to purchase ACA in the end... Do you have answer to that question?

I have paid very high taxes in US for past 20years. My tax dollars, like yours, are used to educate illegal immigrants, their healthcare and now to shelter 58k people at the border. So why should I not expect something from government to take care of our old parents who are here legally and their kids have paid more taxes in 20years than most Americans pay in their lifetime?

ACA for two old citizens is about $1800 per month. No website gives information on copay and deductible. I am clarifying that from OP... Do you know the answer?

[Ariadne22]

Originally Posted by Pch911

I specifically asked OP if he chose to purchase ACA in the end... Do you have answer to that question?

Mother is covered. Cost $640/mo. No subsidies.

This is your answer:

Originally Posted by sequon

After so many hours of frustration with the healthcare.gov website since last Oct, I was finally able to get her enrolled on the exchange website. Thank God!

We were given a bunch of options to choose from (about 20+). I picked a silver plan with a relatively smaller deductible. The premium is $640/mo. I was slightly disappointed that I will not get a subsidy---my AGI will be less than 400% of federal poverty line for family of 6 but still no subsidy? I don't know why. Well, that's OK. I am fortunate that one of my sisters (living and working outside the US) agreed to provide her version of subsidy to me, so my financial burden will be less.

As of now I was told that I am not getting anything. If this was a mistake and I do end up being qualified for subsidy, it would be taken care of in the next year Tax return (2015), not a problem for me.

Second question I had was related to the seemingly complex situation (at least to me at that time)---me and my family (wife+kids) have health insurance through my work, but my mother (also my dependent on my tax return) was not covered so I was trying to enroll her on the exchange. Is this complex? I don't think so, or maybe.... I wasn't sure how the website or customer representative over the phone would handle the situation properly. It turned out that my concern was somewhat legitimate, because the instruction on the website was confusing (and some of them were clearly mis-phrased!), so I had to redo the whole process so many times, wasting so many hours!!! I even phoned the call center to talk to real humans.... Well, she wasn't any better than the crappy website! She was even more confused. I retried and retried on the website... and the miracle happened. Everything went through OK--that was January 7th or so--yes, I had already given up enrolling for January, but trying for the Feb 1 start date.

Anyway, a good news is.... MY MOTHER IS COVERED, YEAH!!

[Pch911]

I visited covered CA site after very long time and it looks like they have fixed it a lot. I see all the copay and deductible information available now which was not published before. For gold coverage the copay is pretty low and no deductible....

[sequon]

Originally Posted by dbhat

Sorry, I asked this question in a separate post, but this is more in context. So did you have to go to healthcare.gov, register you mother and then go through an application ? sorry, I havent used the website and I am and family (wife + 2 kids) are covered by employer. If I bring my parents, would each have to be registered individually? Thanks

Yes, I went to the healthcare.gov site, registered my mother and went through the application. So, she was the applicant, not me. But one thing that made it a little complicated---still I had to list every member of my household and all incomes. That was necessary to keep her from being eligible for Medicaid (her income is zero). Without disclosing my income, the website would incorrectly indicate that she would be eligible for Medicaid and we would be routed to the state Medicaid agency. I knew better so I just avoided that, but had we gone through state Medicaid agency, I'm sure we would be wasting a few months only to learn that she wouldn't be eligible.

[sequon]

Originally Posted by overthehedge

Hi Sequon, it is great to hear that you were able to get health insurance coverage through the ACA! Even though your grandmother was a recent older immigrant who was over the age of 65, and though she was not eligible for healthcare through medicare (ineligible because it requires that you have been in the country for 5 years), it is great that you were able to find and get coverage through Obamacare and healthcare.gov for health insurance. Based on what I've read, two questions hoping you can help the rest of us out:

- How did you register for the ACA coverage? Was it as simple as going to the website or did you have to do additional things since she is over 65?
- Which state did you do this in? It seems others who are trying this are not having much luck (in TX for example as another poster mentioned)

I'm in VA and this state is not so friendly to ACA, but eventually we went through OK. Maybe because we are in a metropolitan area (DC suburb), so there are quite a few options to choose from. It is possible that a combination of ACA-hostile state (such as TX) and insufficient coverage options could be a problem.

[sequon]

Originally Posted by wehotex

You seem like a well educated sensible immigrant. But I find myself asking WHY should this country provide for your elderly relative who never contributed ANYTHING to this country's starved entitlement system? You must understand that our parents and grandparents contributed to these sorry systems during their entire working lives (40 plus years). Why does an elderly person from another country need to rely on a system that is meant to support OUR countrymen, those who paid for it during their working lives? Doesn't your own country provide for your elderly parent?

Thank you for asking, wehotex.

Your question is reasonable. I would ask the same question if I were you. The only problem is...you severely misunderstood the important issue here. I wish you gave it a benefit of doubt. You might not like some politicians, but could the system be that messed up? C'mon...

ACA is not about piggy-bagging on "this country's starved entitlement system." ACA is not magic--it does not make those ineligible for the entitlement program magically eligible. It simply opened up a big, free-trade market place for private insurance, so that those ineligible people (as well as anyone covered by other options) could have affordable coverage options with private insurers. Rest assured. The system that your parents and grandparents have contributed to (Oh, by the way, I myself am also part of that system, because I have contributed enough) is out of reach from those new immigrants.

The truth of reality is---I don't feel sorry for your parents and grandparents, because they got their dues back (possibly they might have gotten more than they contributed). But I feel sorry for people of my own generation. For decades we give up a big chunk of money from our hard earned paycheck. Now we fear that most of the money will dissolve into thin air and we are on our own when we retire. I feel even more sorry to those younger than me.

[sequon]

Originally Posted by Sabrina Smith

Hi, our mother is 89 and alone over seas. The only hurdle in bringing her to the USA is health insurance. She has no income and little assets. I was wondering if the gentleman in the same situation solved this problem with his mother and Obama care. Please advise.

Obamacare does not solve the problem of healthcare for new immigrants without sufficient means of supporting themselves. Obamacare plus the ability to pay for healthcare expenses (insurance premium + copay + etc) solve the problem.

Originally Posted by Pch911

Hi sequon- I am in same boat. So have you purchased via ACA?? Isn't that like $1000/mo plus exorbitant copays etc?? Is it really affordable?

Something being affordable is subjective, so if you think the new options are still not affordable, I'm sorry to you, but there are many people who think the new options that are available are affordable.

One way to see whether that's really affordable or not is to consider the alternative. Before ACA, these elderly new immigrants over their working age had no way to get insurance. Some extensive traveler insurance policies (such as those offered by insubuy) were the only option, but the premium was very expense (over $2000/mo per person) and still the quality was not good (very limited coverage). Without reasonable options we had to leave them uninsured. If anything serious were to happen (which is likely considering their age), caregiver's financial stability would be jeopardized.

Now, with ACA, we don't have to worry about filing bankruptcy, even if anything happened. The new premium, I think, is "affordable." Again, if you don't think that's affordable, I have to say to you I'm sorry, but we have to accept the reality that the cost of caregiving for elderly relatives is expense and it can never be really affordable to some people. But someone has to pay for it and if you, as an immigrant, show any hesitation to pay yourself, then you lose your ground.

[prak78821]

Originally Posted by sequon

....the website would incorrectly indicate that she would be eligible for Medicaid and we would be routed to the state Medicaid agency. I knew better so I just avoided that, but had we gone through state Medicaid agency, I'm sure we would be wasting a few months only to learn that she wouldn't be eligible.

I have not checked the previous messages in this thread. Probably you/your parent(s) live in one of the "red states" that do not have Medicaid expansion. If you were living in one of the "blue states" that have allowed Medicaid expansion, wouldn't being routed to Medicaid be a good thing? Your parent(s) premiums would be very, very low (<$50 per month per person). Or, are you saying that your parent(s) would be ineligible for Medicaid even in the "blue states" because less than 5 years have passed since they became immigrant ?

[Ariadne22]

Originally Posted by prak78821

I have not checked the previous messages in this thread. Probably you/your parent(s) live in one of the "red states" that do not have Medicaid expansion. If you were living in one of the "blue states" that have allowed Medicaid expansion, wouldn't being routed to Medicaid be a good thing?

Yours is post #69. OP provided his state in Post #66:

Originally Posted by sequon

I'm in VA and this state is not so friendly to ACA, but eventually we went through OK. Maybe because we are in a metropolitan area (DC suburb), so there are quite a few options to choose from. It is possible that a combination of ACA-hostile state (such as TX) and insufficient coverage options could be a problem.

Originally Posted by prak78821

Or, are you saying that your parent(s) would be ineligible for Medicaid even in the "blue states" because less than 5 years have passed since they became immigrant ?

Also answered, on first page, here:

Originally Posted by sequon

You would wonder if she may qualify for Medicaid for low income, but no, because under the immigration law, I am the sponsor, meaning that I am responsible for her and I must solely support her and keep her out of "public charge"--i.e., food stamp, Medicaid, etc.

Usually the state health agencies approve it with no problem, but it is a violation of contract between the USCIS and the sponsor, so the sponsor is subject to litigation. I want to abide with the contract, so I choose not to do that.

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