civilservant

I don't see why. Medicaid is supposed to be for disabled/retired people who do not qualify for Medicare and/or are in the 24 month waiting period. It was never designed for a working age person making an income until OCare expanded it - and you know that Florida, with it's Republican leanings at the state level, was never going to expand. It's the same in GA.

scrubbedexpat099

I know in Colorado it is purely income dependent.

C$18k without looking it up for a single person.

leema5

Perhaps I wasn’t clear. Looking at the amount for a household income of two (I think it was $21,000 before tax) I thought it was extremely low; and that if a couple earned just slightly more than that and therefore wouldn’t qualify, how hard it would be to live on that amount plus pay healthcare. That is why I was shocked.

civilservant

I understood, and my comment stands. The reason why is because Medicaid is not for working people as designed. It's part of the reason why the jobs market is so competitive, the benefits that are offered (such as employer sponsored health coverage) are valuable.

In my field, someone making $8 an hour is of course on a low wage, but most of the people making that do not take into consideration how much the employer pays in health coverage also. For a typical plan in my experience, the cost is shared 25:75 in favor of the employee.

As an example, I pay $53.12 a pay period (bi-weekly) for my health coverage, which is for me only. In the same period my employer contributes $158.75 towards my coverage. That's $158.75 that I would most likely be paying to an insurance company, after tax, out of my pocket, on the exchange, were I not covered.

leema5

Thank you for the extra information regarding contributions. It is similar to the way my pension works in the UK.

My wife will be unemployed until at least August and that is the reason I have included Medicaid in my research/request for suggestions. We had no idea where to start.

What I’ve taken from some of the replies is that whichever route we take might not mean healthcare straight away as it takes time to kick in. My wife has some health issues so I would like her to be insured as quickly as possible regardless of how much it costs.

Thanks to input from you and everyone else, we at least know where to start and what questions to be asking.

carcajou

Most Americans get health insurance through their employer. If your wife gets a (public school) teaching job in Florida, I would be very, very surprised if she did not get some kind of subsidised (if not free) health insurance though the school system. You won't be relying on Medicaid.

Depending on where you go in Florida, and what subject, there is a demand for teachers and some school districts (Florida, uniquely, does school districts by county) do recruit and hold job fairs across the US. Not too long ago they were even recruiting in areas that there's usually surplus staff in, like social studies.

Approach charter schools with extreme caution. Some are good; some are atrocious.

A word of advice: When employed as a teacher, participate in supervising/organising extracurricular activities. In the US, a lot of sport, fine arts, etc are run through the schools, and not through community or outside clubs like in Europe. Many school districts in Florida have new staff on successive one-year contracts but must either award tenure or cut bait on someone after the third year (that means, legally, you essentially "own" your job and while they can still get rid of you, it's really laborious and they have to show cause). They won't often give tenure if you don't involve yourself in the extracurriculars of the school, even if you're a good classroom teacher, because the logic is, if this person doesn't do anything extra now, when they are on one-year contracts and fighting for their position - how are they going to be as a veteran tenured teacher?

Other states are different; that information is Florida-specific.

Good luck.

scrubbedexpat099

I know some years back my County's average employee cost was about 40k of which half was wages.

Most non governmental low paid jobs where I am have no benefits.

Giantaxe

That's incorrect. Medicaid was originally for low income households lacking employer-provided insurance (or who were self-employed or unemployed) who also had minor age children in their household - hence the minimum requirements from the federal government as to who should be covered. States were free to cover more people if they wished, and iirc about 7 out of 50 did.

Giantaxe

It's only since the ACA that there has been a mandate on employers (with more than 50 ? employees) to provide insurance. Prior to that, most jobs paying low wages didn't provide insurance. Even now, less than 50% of private employers provide insurance (although a lot more than 50% of employees get insurance through their employer):

https://www.kff.org/other/state-indi...2:%22asc%22%7D

Most definitely many people that work are on Medicaid - even in states that did not expand Medicaid.