Applying for, and receiving Medicaid is a daunting task for seniors and caregivers. Our team at New York for Seniors will dedicate the entire year of 2022 trying to provide real resource information to help seniors and caregivers to navigate the process. Our publisher, Vernon Jones, has been trying for over a year to get Medicaid and SNAP for his mom, and he has been unsuccessful so far. If the publisher of New York for Seniors is facing challenges then it is frightening to know what other caregivers and seniors are going through.
“I am determined to find an organization or agency that can help me to get Medicaid for my mom, who turned 90 this year”, stated Vernon Jones, Publisher and Founder of New York for Seniors. “The process has been extremely frustrating. My mom should also be eligible for SNAP, but that too has been challenging. I had been working with a representative from Met Council, but during the process the representative stopped responding to my emails. I tried to connect with the CEO of Met Council but was unsuccessful on that front as well. The agency that operates SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) has not been helpful either. I submitted all of the requested paperwork directly to SNAP, as well as to the representative of Met Council, but I still received notices stating that paperwork was still missing. The point here is that I am fully competent when it comes to submitting forms online and gathering documents, yet I am still having a problem. I can’t begin to imagine the difficulties others are facing as they attempt to access SNAP, Access-A-Ride, Medicaid and every other resource that is available for seniors and caregivers. More than being frustrating, it’s saddening. I am positive New York’s seniors are suffering in silence. Many of the seniors worked in New York their entire lives, yet they cannot access the resources that are supposed to be available to them.”
We are going to try our best to create an on-going series of articles to assist seniors and caregivers through the processes of securing theses resources. We DO NOT have any grants or contracts with the city to provide services, nor are we seeking any, but we receive phone calls every single day from caregivers and seniors who are in desperate need of services. There has to be a better solution for our seniors in New York City and New York State.
Here is the start of us trying to educate seniors and caregivers on the process.
Let’s start with this first most basic question:
Who is Eligible for Medicaid?
For our purposes we are only dealing with the senior population, although children, single adults, couples without children and families with children living in New York may be eligible if they are:
- U.S. citizens or meet immigration status requirements. (Undocumented immigrants are eligible for Medicaid only for the treatment of emergency medical conditions and prenatal care), and
- Meet certain income eligibility requirements tied to household size.
Seniors Eligible for Medicaid:
To be eligible for New York Medicaid, you must be a resident of the state of New York, a U.S. national, citizen, permanent resident, or legal alien, in need of health care/insurance assistance, whose financial situation would be characterized as low income or very low income. You must also be one of the following:
Pregnant or Be responsible for a child 18 years of age or younger, or Blind, or
Have a disability or a family member in your household with a disability, or
Be 65 years of age or older.
Generally, in New York, seniors are eligible for Medicaid if you have no more than $13,800 in resources (assets), and no more than $20,100 for married couples. Almost every senior can become eligible for Medicaid, even if they are over the minimum income requirement, if they go through a Pooled Trust, but we will get to that process in other articles. Let’s start with the basic information about eligibility.
According to the NY State health website, which is almost impossible to follow, persons over 65 who are not a parent or caretaker relative of minor children, anyone who has Medicare, and persons seeking to qualify for Medicaid based on a disability must apply for coverage through New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). The website states that you can Call 347-396-4705 for free enrollment assistance. Trained enrollers can help you apply for or renew your Medicaid and apply for programs to help reduce Medicare costs.or visit any one of HRA’s Medical Assistance Program Offices.
Let’s leave it right here for now.
Any senior looking to enroll, or caregiver looking to assist an elderly relative or friend with the enrollment process please call the number above and let us know how it works for you. Email us at info@jig.media to tell us your experience. We will follow up with the results. Please do not call our office because we are being bombarded with questions from seniors and caregivers, but we DO NOT provide actual services. New York for Seniors is simply an organization with a goal of bringing resource information to seniors and caregivers. There are many non profit organizations that receive grant money to provide these services. Through this process we are going to find the non profit organization(s) that can actually help you access the available resources. We have not found any as of today.
Subscribe to New York for Seniors to stay updated on the “Enrollment Process to Access Medicaid in New York”.
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