Medicaid is a program designed to assist a wide range of people with the growing costs of health care. Those eligible for such benefits include low-income families, people with disabilities or serious illnesses, and pregnant women with no other form of insurance to cover the cost of their prenatal care. The program is also designed to help fill in the gaps left by Medicare for elderly recipients. Of course, being granted these benefits isn’t as simple as filling out a form to request help with your medical expenses.
Plenty of forms are involved, but you also have to provide quite a bit of additional documentation in order to be considered for eligibility. Applicants typically need to supply their Social Security cards, birth certificates, verification of both earned and unearned income, as well as proof of monthly expenses for shelter and utilities. Depending on your specific circumstances, you may also need to furnish a marriage certificate, your spouse’s death certificate, military discharge papers, insurance policies, and statements from your healthcare provider regarding your disability and the need for in-home care, among other information.
Without help from medicaid lawyers, just gathering all this information can be an intimidating process. If you lack any of the elements applying to your individual situation, your chances of being denied increase dramatically. Furthermore, if you happen to own more than one vehicle or have a few additional assets to fall back on, these could work against you. You have a right to hold onto some of your property and to continue receiving a certain amount of income in addition to Medicaid benefits, but the specific guidelines can become a bit unclear during the application process.
If you want to make sure your application, along with all the other documentation you’re required to provide, are in order from the beginning, you may want to seek the advice of Medicaid Lawyers in your area. In the event, you’ve been denied eligibility, appealing this decision is complicated and held to certain time frame restrictions. Attorneys well versed in Elder Law, such as Mark Aberasturi, can go a long way toward ensuring your rights in these matters are fully enforced.