would you get divorced if your spouses income was giving you a share of cost on your medicaid. If you got a divorce and just lived together all your medicine and doctors appointments would be free. So basically being married costs you $600 dollars a month. Is it worth it to stay married, or is it just a piece of paper?
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Hhmmm…that’s a hard question. My partner and i are looking to get married soon, just because it will make some things easier for us (we’ve been together for 11 years, so the marriage isn’t some impulse thing). For example, if something happened to my partner and he wasn’t able to talk for himself, i would be his advocate. If you’re not married, then i’d be pretty well much ignored, even if we’ve been together for as long as we have. We want to be able to advocate for each other medically.
However, in your example, it sounds almost as if being divorced would be a better option, because at least you aren’t costing $600 per month. If you are married and still happy together, then i would stay married…but then i don’t know how desperate your finances are.
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I think it depends how much the marriage and the money mean to you. If 7200 a year is not a lot then stay married. You also have to weigh other cost savings from being married. Getting a divorce also costs money. Personally I don’t think I’d do it, but you got to look at the facts. Tough question
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@Leaf how do you calculate 600/month? That seems extremely high
Here in the uk it doesn’t matter if you are married or not. If you live together it counts as marriage to welfare
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Here in Portugal it’s virtually free if you go thru the state system and you don’t even need insurance for prescriptions.
I have a private pdoc that charges $75 once a month and drugs are maybe another $75/month
I also have a private pdoc that charges 100€ for half an hour every three months
Good question @Leaf. Sorry to hear you have to make this choice.
I got married this year and now have a combined income. He had a bad year in 2018 financially so luckily we received a bunch of benefits like food, heat and health. But if he has another regular or a good year in 2019, we will lose those benefits. @Moonwalker makes a good point. I’ll stay married unless times get so bad we are not functioning. Is that $300/person? When my husband paid out of pocket he was paying about $500/mo for a Silver tier plan.
My marriage was me making a commitment to my wife. It’s more than a piece of paper to me. I’d find the $600/mth elsewhere.
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If my husband and I weren’t married I’d get Medicaid, ssi, and food stamps. We don’t want to divorce though because it’s considered insurance fraud and we’d have to pay it all back.
My wife and I are both disabled and depend solely on SSD and help from our families. Because we married we lost a lot of benefits including medicare extra help and housing assistance. We have friends who are on Medicaid and they seem far worse off financially, especially the ones on SSI and Medicaid. Medicaid is good for mental health coverage in a way but sometimes you have to travel to clinics where the staff is rather stressed and underpaid. There are a lot of clinics that accept Medicare and other insurance and exclude Medicaid patients (I think they call it cherry picking). I usually pay $40 a visit but my wife has a supplemental insurance so her copay is covered. I am not sure we made the best decision to go with Medicare but to be on Medicaid and married would mean we would have to spend down $500 a month at least plus we would be more restricted with what providers we could have. If one of you has a serious chronic physical problem that requires frequent hospitalizations I think using the supplemental insurance is a good idea even though the premium is $200 plus another $50-$60 for a Part D plan. If I needed to see a therapist every week though I think I would be on Medicaid instead of paying $40 a pop.
I think the best deal is maybe Medicaid for working individuals, but if you are married then I am pretty sure both of you have to be working.
I think it is discrimination the way they penalize married disabled couples. We are fortunate that our families help us when they can but otherwise we would probably be homeless or divorced.
The people who struggle the most however are the ones who are outcasts in their families or if the whole branch of the family are outcasts in the larger family.
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