Medicaid for pregnant woman with 864 affidavit

[Marta Proniagina 119]

I have called my local medicaid and they said that while looking at our income they allowed 5% "airbag" since i am pregnant and that's why we are eligible (she said we are $30 away from being ineligible). And she said that they know about the affidavit but it's okay on their side because of the pregnancy. They say, I'll be eligible through the whole pregnancy but most likely not after that (which is absolutely fine with me. the pregnancy and delivery is our biggest concern at this time.

I am currently trying to get to speak to the uscis representative but couldn't yet

[Marta Proniagina 119]

Plus this makes me feel pretty good:
 

Benefits Not Subject to Public Charge Consideration

Under the agency guidance, non-cash benefits and special-purpose cash benefits that are not intended for income maintenance are not subject to public charge consideration. Such benefits include:

• Medicaid and other health insurance and health services (including public assistance for immunizations and for testing and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases, use of health clinics, short-term rehabilitation services, prenatal care and emergency medical services) other than support for long-term institutional care

https://www.uscis.gov/news/fact-sheets/public-charge-fact-sheet
edited in October this year.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Marta Proniagina

[Mrsjackson 300]

10 minutes ago, Marta Proniagina said:

it is retroactive for 3 months prior. why is it bad?

Talking about the law 

[Marta Proniagina 119]

Just now, Mrsjackson said:

Talking about the law 

oh, okay. Got me scared for a while!

[Umka36 781]

OP you have to do what's in the best interest of your unborn child. I use to care about this, but your child will ultimately pay back society as they become an adult. Kind of how the system works.

 

However I draw the line on bringing elderly parent who will never work and pay back into the system, but the children want the US public to fund their medical care. That's my rant and the moderator can delete it if they want.

[Marta Proniagina 119]

Alright. I spoke to the uscis representative and they say the agency who gives the benefit decides whether to deem it from the sponsor or not. So, it is up to them. And I believe as long as my state thinks everything is ok, we are going to be fine. So, I have decided to go with the medicaid the state gave me and we'll see how that goes. 

Thank you everybody for your comments. I appreciate it!

[laowainelson 26]

36 minutes ago, Marta Proniagina said:

oh, okay. Got me scared for a while! 0

Marta, I think you have nothing to worry about. I worked as a Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), and TANF (Cash assistance) case worker in Texas HHSC until about 5 years ago. We were instructed to advise our applicants that medicaid and SNAP had no repercussions on immigration proceedings. The only applicants that were advised about a negative impact on their future naturalization and asked about their I 864 sponsor were people applying for cash assistance (In Texas the maximum benefit was marginal,  close to $200 per month at best at the time, it may be a little higher now).

Medicaid, while it varies from State to State,  has generally higher income limits for pregnant women as compared to "regular medicaid". Some States, such as Texas, have no medicaid for adults at all, other than pregnancy medicaid for low income women.

In any case, there may be a program for pregnancy in your State that is not medicaid and has some costs associated with it. If it makes you feel better, you could inquire about that with the office where you applied and ask to be transferred to it if possible. I used to do this for parents who qualified for medicaid for their children but choose to ask to be transferred to CHIP instead, which has some marginal annual fee and also some co-pays associated with it but it is not considered "medicaid". That's an option, but you should be okay with pregnancy medicaid. There is no need to bring up anything about sponsors or I 864 while applying. If they have seen your green card, they have seen your date of admission and also know that you are an LPR.

My knowledge may be a little outdated but there has been no major change in the laws of medicaid and healthcare since the ACA and no change in immigration laws since.

 

 

Be well and please take care of yourself during your pregnancy. These worries are not good for you.

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by laowainelson

[Marta Proniagina 119]

5 minutes ago, laowainelson said:

Marta, I think you have nothing to worry about. I worked as a Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), and TANF (Cash assistance) case worker in Texas HHSC until about 5 years ago. We were instructed to advise our applicants that medicaid and SNAP had no repercussions on immigration proceedings. The only applicants that were advised about a negative impact on their future naturalization and asked about their I 864 sponsor were people applying for cash assistance (In Texas the maximum benefit was marginal,  close to $200 per month at best at the time, it may be a little higher now).

Medicaid, while it varies from State to State,  has generally higher income limits for pregnant women as compared to "regular medicaid". Some States, such as Texas, have no medicaid for adults at all, other than pregnancy medicaid for low income women.

In any case, there may be a program for pregnancy in your State that is not medicaid and has some costs associated with it. If it makes you feel better, you could inquire about that with the office where you applied and ask to be transferred to it if possible. I used to do this for parents who qualified for medicaid for their children but choose to ask to be transferred to CHIP instead, which has some marginal annual fee and also some co-pays associated with it but it is not considered "medicaid". That's an option, but you should be okay with pregnancy medicaid. There is no need to bring up anything about sponsors or I 864 while applying. If they have seen your green card, they have seen your date of admission and also know that you are an LPR.

My knowledge may be a little outdated but there has been no major change in the laws of medicaid and healthcare since the ACA and no change in immigration laws since.

 

 

Be well and please take care of yourself during your pregnancy. These worries are not good for you.

 

 

 

Thank you very much for such an informative comment. Yes, I'll choose to cal down and enjoy the pregnancy, and be happy for the medicaid as it's going to be a huge help for our family. Hopefully, everything will go fine.

[geowrian 22,335]

12 hours ago, Jenny17655 said:

The proposed bill is NOT law. If it was to become law it would NOT be retro active.

True in that it cannot be used to make one ineligible for immigration benefits they already obtained.

It can still be used for consideration of petitioning another family member, if one were to do so in the future.

Just wanted to clarify that point.

 

12 hours ago, Jenny17655 said:

I have NEVER heard of a sponsor being sued.  

It's absolutely happened that a sponsor has been sued.

Currently, the government has not been actively enforcing the I-864 contract. This could change at any moment (although it is unlikely to do so IMO).

 

But it's not an issue for the OP as her state uses state funds to cover her. Had she lived in another state, things might be different in terms of regular Medicaid (Emergency Medicaid is still available, though).

For the sake of anybody reading this thread later, I want to point out that the individuial's circumstances matter, so as to not have a blanket statement that it's permitted for an LPR for < 5 years to use Medicaid.

[alenkaya 1]

I got Medicaid when I was pregnant without GC on hand. I had my GC interview later with no problem and got GC.

Edited December 4, 2018 by alenkaya