How does Medicaid determine my income eligibility?

Nathan - most of the folks on this site are dealing with Medicaid eligibility for their aged parents &/or dealing with eligibility for their spouse to get into a NH or AL. For us, Medicaid eligibility is pretty straightforward in that they need to have their monthly income (like their SS and retirement or pension) under whatever their state has set for its Medicaid monthly income limit (usually about $ 2,100) and their assets under 2K. Their annual SS and other retirement "awards letters" determines the amount reported & counted by Medicaid and they basically pay all their income to the NH or facility each month as a required co-pay or SOC (share of cost) less a very small personal needs allowance (from $ 35 - $ 105) each month to pay for clothing replacement and beauty/barber shop. These folks aren't working anymore. My mom got $ 1800 a mo income (which was pretty high for her age group) and $ 1,740 a mo had to be paid to her NH and she kept only $ 60 a mo. If their assets are over 2K, they have to spend-down to basically become impoverished before Medicaid will pay. That is the reality of Medicaid for the aged.

Keep all this in the back of your mind as eventually you too will be facing LTC either for yourself or your folks…….

Your ? is more about low-income Medicaid eligibility and I'd bet will involve your getting health insurance through ACA with a co-pay if your state has done Medicaid expansion or with Medicaid community health initiatives if no ACA done. I'd suggest you call whatever ACA health insurance exchanges are set up for Ohio to see how to get coverage and what you need to do to provide verifiable income.

btw if your getting SNAP cause your low income, states are really cutting back on unemployed childless adults eligibility unless you are working 20 hr a week & you have to take a job, no more its not commensurate with my education/training or prior salary. Otherwise it's 3 months only of SNAP.

Get the application form and notice that it deducts your expenses from your income to come up with a net number. They look at your income month to month. If you don't spend down within the month, you become ineligible.